


Gifted

by Jacketarearmpants



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Bank Robbery, Blind Date, F/M, Rating May Change, Superheroes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-08
Updated: 2020-12-09
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:41:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 31,937
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23074168
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jacketarearmpants/pseuds/Jacketarearmpants
Summary: El Hopper and Mike Wheeler keep secrets from one another: she’s literally a superhero, and he uses his powers to rob banks. For the most part, they’re able to keep their private lives and romantic lives separate.Until, one day, they collide in the worst way possible.
Relationships: Eleven | Jane Hopper/Mike Wheeler, Maxine "Max" Mayfield/Lucas Sinclair, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Comments: 44
Kudos: 65





	1. Prologue: Awakenings

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everybody! This is an AU I have been working on since December. I was inspired to do a superhero AU from fics like The Shatter series by midas_touch_of_angst. 
> 
> I would like to thank my awesome beta @leetheshark  
> .

**_July 15th  
Hawkins, Indiana_ **

"Here it is, boys," Dustin announces as the rotten wooden door from the lobby swings open. "Hawkins National Laboratory." 

Lucas rolls his eyes. “You _are_ aware that this place has been abandoned for two years and we’re not going to find any, quote, _cool shit_ in here, right? Hell, they don’t even have the barbed wire on the fence outside anymore. No one cares. There’s nothing here.”

"Which is why it's perfect." Dustin grins, adjusting his baseball cap. "Instead of having our hangout sessions in Mike's basement, now we can have them here.” 

“People do still come here,” Will says, pointing his thumb at an abandoned can of Coca-Cola and a few discarded cans of spray paint against one of the walls. 

“Yeah,” Dustin says, shrugging, “but those are dumb high schoolers that just use the upstairs rooms to have sex and smoke weed. It’ll be fine as long as we find a room down here or in the basement.”

Mike snaps his head toward Dustin, glaring at him “Okay, there is no way in fucking hell we’re going into the basement.”

"What's wrong with the basement?” Dustin asks.

"Probably some weird government shit that I'm not trying to get involved in?"

Dustin scoffs. “Whatever, Mike. Let’s go look around.”

Their search of the first floor yields nothing. All the rooms are either too dirty or too destroyed to use.

“Well,” Dustin says, heading for the door marked _East Stairwell,_ “looks like we’re going to have to go downstairs.”

“I swear to God, Dustin,” Lucas groans. “If we find some weird demon, I’m going to sacrifice you to it.”

Heading down into the basement, all four boys expect to see more of the open-spaced lab surfaces that make up the first floor. But instead, they’re greeted by long, narrow whitewashed corridors with flickering lights.

"Okay,” Mike says. “This looks like something out of Silent Hill and we’re _definitely_ going to die."

"Shut up and just start looking around," Dustin whispers, peeking into one of the rooms next to the stairwell entrance.

The four boys split up to search the rooms. Each of them goes down a separate corridor, all finding that none of the rooms are in habitable condition. They meet back in front of the stairwell.

"Dustin, listen,” Will sighs. “There's nothing good here and we checked almost every room.”

Dustin points down a hallway to a large set of double doors. “Did we check that one?”

"I didn't feel like we should," Mike answers. “Something feels off about it and I’m not trying to die in an abandoned lab basement”

"Can we check it, please?" Dustin begs.

Mike frowns. “Dude, no.”

Lucas’ annoyance is starting to show on his face. "Dustin,” he asks, “why do you want to do this so badly?"

Dustin shrugs. "I just thought it would be fun. You know, spur of the moment thing." 

"Bullshit!" Mike shouts. "It's disgusting down here. _How_ is this going to be fun?" 

“Dustin, come on,” Lucas adds. “You haven’t shut up about this plan since the end of school. And like, it’s not good. It’s not going to work.”

"What's wrong with Mike's basement?" Will asks. His face is kinder than the others’.

"It's weird!" Dustin blurts out.

Mike’s eyebrows arch in confusion. "What do you mean it's weird?"

"Guys, we start high school in two months. We start college in four years. We're not supposed to be kids anymore. And I just wanted to have one last summer full of dumb stuff before we get sucked up into responsibilities. I just wanted to have fun."

Dustin looks down at his shoes as his voice starts to waver. Mike looks at Lucas, who looks at Will, and the three of them start to nod in understanding.

"And yeah, as much as I love your basement, Mike, it's weird. Your mom looks at us like we're too old to be playing D&D and it's just… I guess I just wanted one last place that we can be kids again. Okay?" The others can see the beginnings of tears in the corners of Dustin’s eyes. 

After a couple seconds, Mike speaks up. “Okay, we’ll check out that room and then we’ll go home.”

“We’re sorry” Lucas adds as the others nod in agreement

"Okay," Dustin says, wiping his eyes with the back of his hands.

Lucas nods, putting on a wide smile to replace his annoyed expression from before. “I’ll lead the way.”

Will wraps his arm around Dustin's shoulder as the four of them walk toward the double doors at the end of the hallway. “ _Confidential Testing Room A,_ ” Mike reads, from the sign on one of the doors, before reaching out and jiggling the handle. “It’s locked.”

“Not for long,” Lucas says. He lifts his foot up and kicks the lock. “Try it again, Mike.”

Mike pulls on the door handle again. With an audible click, the door opens, letting the four of them into the room. It stretches out before them for what feels like miles, a bank of computers in front of them, and in the center a cylindrical machine about the size of a vending machine.

Will gasps. “What is this place?”

“Yeah, what is this?” Mike looks around the room, noticing various seismograph reading machines.

Lucas shakes the mouse on one of the nearby computers. “It’s like some sort of weird experiment room.”

"Guys!" Dustin shouts, his eyes lighting up as he looks around. "I know what this is!" 

"What is it?" Will asks, running his hand with fascination over a desk covered in dust.

“This is Project Awakenings!”

"No, it's not!" Lucas rolls his eyes. "That's some bullshit conspiracy theory Murray came up with." 

“It’s real!” Dustin insists. “Starting like four years ago, the government tried to go into some alternate dimension and they fucked it up bad. You guys remember that massive explosion in New York City two years ago? The one that apparently gave a bunch of people superpowers? This is one of the machines that caused it!” He finishes by pointing at the machine in the center of the room.

“That’s _fake,_ ” Mike says. “For all we know, it could be like a sensory deprivation tank or something.”

“Yeah?” Dustin grins. “Then I’m gonna go turn it on.”

“NO, DUSTIN!” the other three shout in unison.

“Too late!” Dustin walks up to the front of the machine, covered in various buttons and switches.

“Dustin, you better not touch that,” Lucas says, stepping toward where Dustin’s busy examining the controls. “We have no idea what could happen.”

“Guys!” Dustin says. “This facility’s been shut down for _two years._ I just want to poke it so I can tell people I touched a secret government project.”

Will frowns. “Just don’t turn it on.”

"After this long, I don't even think it _can_ turn on.” Dustin runs his hand over the switches in front. Then, he flicks one of them.

Suddenly, the machine whirs to life with a roar of grinding noises sounding from within.

Mike scrambles backward. "FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK!"

"Everyone to the door!” Lucas shouts, grabbing Will's hand and running toward the door with Dustin hot on his heels.

Mike is the first to make it—but when he pulls on the handle, the door doesn’t budge.

"Guys, it must have automatically locked!" he yells, voice cracking. "It's not letting me through!" 

In the center of the room, the machine whirs louder and louder. The lights overhead start to flicker on and off.

"Son of a bitch, let me try!" Dustin screams. He pounds on the door and violently jiggles the handle.

"Guys!” Will shouts. “The machine!" In the center of the room, sparks fly from the machine, and blinding white electricity arcs around it.

"Is it going to explode?" Mike asks.

"I have no idea," Lucas shouts back.

Mike stands with his back against the door. The four friends exchange glances before grabbing each other’s hands. If they’re going out, they’re going out together. 

The machine gets louder and louder, each new noise more deafening than the last. 

And then all Mike can see is black.


	2. Gifted

_**Wednesday, June 5th  
12 Years Later  
Chicago, Illinois** _

"Wallet and phone. Now."

Mike sighs. _I don't have time for this shit. I have a meeting to go to._

"Really?” Mike deadpans. "Or what happens?" 

"You get hurt,” the man says as he produces a small switchblade from his pants pocket.

_At least the guy a few weeks ago had the common sense to use a gun. If you’re going to mug a Gifted, you might want to use a gun._

"Fine, then." Mike rolls his eyes and reaches into his pocket. 

The man begins to step through the alleyway, now only a foot away from Mike, and that's when Mike decides to strike. He lashes his foot out, feeling his heel push into the man's knee. Mike can hear the sickening noise as the knee turns outward. He doesn't need to see it to know that all the ligaments in it are now torn to shreds. The man stumbles forward, dropping his knife. Taking advantage of the position, Mike places his hands around the back of the man's head and, with a move he's performed many times, drives his knee into the man's face. Mike doesn't do it with full power, since he doesn't want the man's skull to resemble a demolished watermelon, but he does it with enough force to send the message home. 

The man crumbles off to the side of the alley, his leg twisted in an unnatural direction, blood dripping from his right eye and nose. 

Mike continues to walk down the alley, checking his watch. 

_Fuck. 1:02. Dustin is going to be pissed._  


* * *

  
"You're late, asshole." Looking up from the blueprints spread across the large table in the main space of the warehouse, Dustin smirks. Beside him are Lucas and Will as the three of them scan over the layout of Gold Credit Bank in Downtown Chicago.

"Yeah, fuck you too." Mike takes a sip from the coffee cup in his hand. _(If he was going to be late anyway…)_ "I got held up on the way here.”

"What do you mean, ‘held up on the way here’?" Lucas asks, one eyebrow raised.

"A mugger in the alley." Mike places his duffel bag on the ground before joining the others around the table. "Took him out pretty easy.”

"Did you kill him?" Will asks, peering up from the layout. 

"No way," Mike answers. He takes another sip of coffee. "Murders mean cops." Dustin starts to raise a finger to interject, but Mike dismisses it with a quick wave as he turns to the blueprints. “I know, I know, I’m sorry I’m late. Dustin, what’s the plan?”

"Gold Credit Bank," Dustin begins, pointing over the map in front of them. "It's a simple job. The take should be approximately $500,000. After we give the payoff to Brenner, it should net us each about $110,000 in profit. Again, pretty simple.” 

“Is the money clean?” Lucas asks.

“It should be, but even if it's not, we can launder it through Harrington and Buckley.”

"Alright.” Will nods as he scans over the blueprint. “Basic layout. Little to no security. What are our roles?”

“Lucas, you’ll be across the street on the roof with sniper and scout duty.” Lucas nods in confirmation as Dustin continues. “Make sure you have your eyes tuned to each frequency so we don’t get caught off guard. Will, you’re coming in the front door with me and Mike.” Dustin points to the entrance on the map. “We’re going to need you for the vault like always. Mike, once Will and I get into the back of the bank, you’re going to stay in the lobby on crowd control. Is that okay?”

"That's perfect." Mike grins. He loves seeing how easily Dustin can come up with heists. 

"Alright gentleman, if my calculations are correct, which they normally are, this should take about 3 minutes," Dustin says, clapping his hands together before rolling up the blueprints. "The get-away van will be parked behind the bank and you guys know where the guns, masks, and suits are."

"Let's go rob a bank, boys," Will says with a smile as they break away from the table.

The four of them can't help but grin as they scatter around the warehouse, gathering all the equipment they need.

 _Hey,_ Mike thinks, _it beats working in an office._  


* * *

  
"UUUGGGHH," El groans as she walks through the front door of her and Max's apartment and throws herself onto the couch, right beside her redheaded roommate.

"What's wrong?"

"It took me like eighteen years to get home because the cops have almost _all of downtown_ on lockdown," El says, her hands wiping down her face. “No one’s allowed in or out.”

"Really? Why would they do that?" Max asks, turning to fully face her drained roommate. “And they really can’t let the chief’s daughter through?”

“The Black Tie Crew struck again,” El sighs. “Fourth time this year!” 

“No way! I bet your dad's going to be happy about that."

“He’s going to be _ecstatic,_ considering he has to to a dumb press conference on TV again with a bunch of reporters that have no clue who these goddamn bank robbers are.” El rolls her eyes before burying her face in her hands.

Max rubs El’s back in sympathy. “Aside from that, how was your day at work?”

“It actually wasn't so bad. I didn't have to deal with too many cases today.” El rises to her feet and starts to head toward the kitchen. “But I think I'm still going to need a glass of wine.”

"Do you think you can get me another beer?” Max shouts after her.

"Yeah, yeah," El says, reaching into a cabinet and grabbing herself a wine glass before turning her attention to the refrigerator. 

Suddenly, a knock at the door almost startles the glass out of her hand.

"Hey El,” Max calls from the couch, “can you get that since you're closer?"

"Yeah, I got it." El places her wine glass down on the counter and heads for the door. "Who do you think it is?"

"It's probably Lucas," Max replies. "He said he was going to stop by after work.”

El opens the door to reveal exactly the man Max was expecting. “Lucas!” she shouts, raising her arms up to quickly wrap around her much taller friend in a tight embrace. “It’s good to see you!”

"Good to see you too, Ellie," he replies with a smile.

El pouts, but with no real trace of hurt. “When are you going to stop calling me that?”

"I'll stop calling you Ellie the second you stop making fun of me and Max’s taste in movies." Lucas laughs, breaking the embrace before plopping down next to his girlfriend on the couch.

"How was the accounting firm today, babe?" Max asks.

“It was pretty good,” Lucas says. “But it was annoying trying to get home with all the police shit downtown.”

"Yeah, El was telling me about it." Max says, reaching her arm around Lucas to cuddle him closer.

"It was fucking awful.” Lucas gives Max a quick peck on the lips. “By the way, did you ask El yet?”

"Ask me what?" El asks, poking her head out from the kitchen, glass of white wine in hand. 

“About Mike.”

“Who?” 

“Well…” Lucas turns to Max, who rubs an embarrassed hand over her face, before looking back at El. “I have a friend named Mike that we kind of want to set you up with.”

“Max!” El whines. “What did I tell you about setting me up with people? You said you would stop doing that.”

“I know I said I would stop,” Max says, raising both hands in front of her. “But hear me out. He's really nice, he's really sweet, he's also really handsome and I think you guys would be good for each other.”

“We were thinking that all four of us could go out to dinner next Friday,” Lucas adds. “And if you like it, then you like it. But if you don’t, I promise we won’t do this again.”

“Ugh, okay,” El says with a huff. “Just, if I don’t like him, please don’t get mad at me.”

“Thank you so much!” Max beams. “You’re going to love him.”  


* * *

  
“I hate the fucking suits,” Mike mutters to himself as he walks through the door to his apartment. In the winter, they’re great—but once it gets above 60, they fucking _suck._

The suits were Dustin's idea. It started back when they did their first bank job, a small place outside of their college. When they met up in Dustin’s dorm room to plan it out, Dustin also suggested they have some kind of uniform. The idea of a black suit and matching black gloves emerged because those were the only matching items of clothing all four of them owned. The simple suits later become more complicated as Dustin added things like built-in body armor, hidden holsters, and support for their communication earpieces. As for masks, those also changed throughout the years. Regardless of design, they've always been heavily modified (also by Dustin) to incorporate a layer of ceramic and a layer of Kevlar, making them bulletproof and _really fucking heavy._ It’s also perfect for added face protection. When they first started, the design of all their masks was clowns. Then, it was smiley faces. Last year, they were horror movie icons. Lucas had Jason, Dustin had Michael Myers, Will had Ghostface, and Mike had Pennywise. This year, they've opted for white skull masks, each with a different pattern painted on by Will. Dustin has atoms, Will has stars, Lucas has flames, and Mike has roses. 

Mike sets his duffel bag down on the floor of his living room. He’s well due for a shower to wash off the sweat and grime from the day’s work. As for the robbery, it was successful. The four of them were in and out of the bank in three minutes and Dustin was right about the amount. The total take was close to $500,000—and with Brenner's cut, currently being delivered by Will, each one of the boys was able to walk away with a nice prize of about $110,000. 

During his shower, Mike thinks—as he often does—about how robbing banks became his day job.

After the explosion in Hawkins lab 12 years ago, Mike and the others changed. They became _Gifted._ In addition to the basics that all Gifteds share, quicker healing and heightened durability, they each gained their own unique gift. Dustin gained enhanced intelligence and mental mimicry: he can observe the use of any mind-based skill and learn it in a matter of seconds. That’s why he can speak 14 languages and hack into the NSA database for fun.

Lucas gained what Mike and the others have nicknamed “Ranger Eyes.” He can see every form of electromagnetic radiation, from radio to gamma. Consequently, he has the best firearm accuracy and precision of anyone in the crew. Will became telekinetic and, according to the Department of Gifted Activities' database of other telepaths, he’s one of the strongest—if not _the_ strongest. He can routinely force open 22.5 ton vault doors without breaking a sweat.

Mike became physically enhanced and gained physical mimicry. Not only is he capable of feats of strength, speed, and stamina that average people can only dream of, but he can also learn any physical skill in the world in a matter of seconds, making him the best close-quarters fighter in the group.

Luckily, they were able to keep their powers hidden and never got registered. No one from the government even cared to check out Hawkins Lab, and the explosion was blamed on some high schoolers. The boys were able to sneak under the radar outside of Hawkins, as the only Gifted people the DGA cared about were the survivors of the New York Explosion. It was in college that they decided to use their Gifts to start robbing banks. They were in Dustin's dorm room one day, and a conversation about robbing banks that started out as a joke later turned awfully serious. They realized that, with their skills combined, no security system on Earth could stop them. Of course, they graduated from college, recieving their degrees with big cheesy smiles while wearing stupid caps and gowns. But that didn't mean anything. The four boys had already become criminals. It wasn't long after graduation that they moved to Chicago, a new city with its fair share of easily targetable banks and plenty of morally corrupt DGA agents to ensure their Gifts stay unregistered. 

Soon, Mike’s thoughts slow. He finishes his shower and begins to towel off, when suddenly he's interrupted by his cell phone ringing. He picks it up and sees Lucas’ name flashing across the screen.

_As if we didn't see each other like an hour ago._

He quickly taps the screen to accept the call and brings the phone to his ear. “What's up?”

“Hey! I’m at Max’s apartment right now. We talked to El.”

“Oh, cool! What did she say?”

“She's down for next Friday.”

“Cool! Keep me updated about times and everything.”

“Will do. Catch you later.”

“Catch you later!”

Mike can't help but sigh as he hangs up the phone. He loves Lucas to death, but he feels like there’s no way this is going to work. There's a reason Mike hasn't dated too many people. He has too many secrets. He's Gifted, and he makes his money from being a criminal. No girl is ever going to want that in her life. He's amazed that the other three can keep up their own relationships—Dustin with Suzie, Will with Aaron, and Lucas with Max. Mike was okay with staying single forever, but when Lucas came to him a couple days ago, saying that his girlfriend's roommate would be perfect for Mike, he said yes. 

Maybe it’ll work.  


* * *

  
El’s eyes start to slip shut as the the Walking Dead episode she picked on Netflix begins to fade into the background.

**Knock knock.**

Her head jolts up at the pounding coming from her apartment door. As she rises to her feet to answer it, she can't help but look at the kitchen clock. 

_Who the hell is knocking at my door at 10:37 at night?_

She swings the door open, ready to give whoever is it the tongue lashing of the decade.

Instead of some poor schmuck, El’s greeted by the behemoth of a man that is Police Chief Jim Hopper. He’s clad in a brown suit and joined by two men in police uniforms, with matching blank expressions.

“Dad?” 

“Hey, El.” The man’s mustache twitches as he attempts to smile.

“You look terrible” El says, noting the tiredness pulling at the corners of his eyes and his slumped stance. “Was the press conference that bad?”

“You have no idea,” Hopper sighs. “Is anyone home?”

“It’s just me. Max left to spend the night at Lucas’ place.”

“Good.” Hopper nods gently, looking into the apartment. “Can we talk in private?”

“Yeah,” El says. She steps aside to let Hopper in. He signals with a nod to the other cops to stand guard in the hallway. “What's wrong?” 

Hopper waits until the door is closed before he starts to speak. “It’s about the Black Tie Crew.” He rubs the bridge of his nose and continues. “I know I’m not supposed to talk to you about this, but all the other options I have are exhausted.”

“What about them?” El asks, her face marked with concern. She knows that if her dad is willing to break protocol, there must be something really wrong.

“We confirmed at least one of them is Gifted, and after consulting the DGA, we realized whoever it is, is unregistered.”

“Do we know what their Gifts are specifically?” El tilts her head in curiosity. “Chicago doesn't really have a high population of Gifted in general.”

“We have a theory that one of them is telekinetic,” Hopper says, before raising his hand to prevent El from responding. “Listen, I know it's not you, but can you please keep an ear to the ground and let me know if you hear anything about another unregistered telekinetic in town?” 

El nods, trying her best to hide the panic storming through her body. 

_Another unregistered telekinetic? How? I thought I was the only one._

“The mayor's breathing down my neck and the public wants blood for these crimes,” Hopper says, his voice cracking. “But I'm afraid I can't give it to them yet.”

“Dad, I know you’re going to catch them.” El crashes into Hopper, wrapping her arms around him. “You always do.”

“I do,” he says, returning the embrace. “I do.”

“Take care of yourself.” El looks up at him. “I love you.”

“Love you too, kid.” Hopper smiles, ruffling her hair with his hand.

Hopper breaks the embrace and heads to the door. He opens it and, with one final nod to El, turns into the hallway. 

After watching her dad leave, El stands in the spot where he left her, her eyes burning with unshed tears. For the first time in her life, she saw her dad broken. He looked so tired, and so done with it all. The man who rescued her—the man who saved her after both her parents were killed, the man who hid her when the DGA came knocking demanding registration for everyone in the New York Explosion, the man who took her away from the hard streets of New York and gave her a new life in Chicago—looked so defeated by a group of four stupid criminals with nothing better to do. El feels tears stream down her cheeks as quiet sobs rise from deep within her chest. 

She’s going to get back at the Black Tie Crew, no matter what.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Feel free to leave a kudos and/or a comment.
> 
> I plan to have the next chapter up in two weeks, stay subscribed to get notified of when.
> 
> Check out my other works as well or follow me on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/Jacketsarepants)


	3. It Ain't No Returns At The Coffee Shop

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope everyone is doing okay during this quarantine. 
> 
> Shoutout to my awesome beta @leetheshark

**_Wednesday June 12th  
Chicago, Illinois_ **

“Just ten more days until summer break,” El mutters as she walks down the street, headed toward her favorite coffee shop, Benny’s. “Just make it ten more days and you’ll be fine.”

It doesn't help that she's already on edge because on Friday, she's supposed to be meeting Max, Lucas, and whoever this Mike person is, for dinner. She can't seem to get Mike off her mind. 

_Is he my type? Is he smart? Sensitive? Cute? Does he like animals?_

It also doesn't help that her previous relationships haven't been the best. Her dating history can best be summed up as a string of bad choices: all the guys in high school just wanted sex, her first college boyfriend cheated on her, and her most recent boyfriend turned out to be a lazy douchebag that only wanted her for money. Plus, Max’s previous attempts at matchmaking have all gone down in flames. But for now, the only thing she wants on her mind is the cup of tea she's going to get.

Before she knows it, she gets to the coffee shop, pushing through the glass double doors with one final exhale. Benny’s is a newer cafe, with its sleek design and extensive menu. El scans the menu above the counter before settling on her usual order of a simple green tea and honey. 

“Hi!” The girl behind the counter smiles at El. “What can I get you?”

El’s expression softens into a slight smile. “A medium hot green tea with honey, please?”

“Good choice,” the barista says, grabbing a cup from the counter. ”Your name?”

El takes out her wallet. “El.”

The barista scribbles the name on the cup. “That’ll be 3.75! Just insert your card into the reader and you should be okay.”

El does just that. Once the machine gives a confirming beep, the barista smiles and says, “Wait down at the end for your drink, it should be right out.”

“Thank you!” El chirps. She walks down and takes her place at the end of the counter.

No less than a minute later, she hears, “Hot green tea for El?” 

“Right here!” El raises her hand and graciously accepts the cup of steaming hot tea, fingers settling around the paper sleeve. “Thank you again!”  
Tea in hand, El takes out her phone and walks toward the door.

She quickly gets absorbed in her Twitter feed as she reaches for the door handle, when suddenly the door flies open and a shape appears in front of her, almost running into her.

“Excuse me?” the shape says gently.

El snaps her head up from her phone to look at the person addressing her and—

In front of her stands one of the prettiest men El has ever seen. He’s almost as tall as Hopper, but much skinnier. His lanky frame is dressed in a loose fitting red workout shirt and a pair of dark jeans. Her eyes travel up to get a look at his face, and El is dumbstruck by how attractive he is. His lips curl in a soft smile as his dark brown eyes meet hers. Freckles spread across his cheeks in rather intricate patterns. His windswept hair spirals out in different directions, giving him a black halo.

“Can I help you?” El says breathlessly, still recovering from her initial infatuation. She’s surprised words even came out of her mouth.

“I almost ran into you!” El’s heart starts to melt at the sheer sincerity that rings from his voice. He just met her—he has no reason to be this understanding. “Just didn’t want to accidentally hurt you!”

“That’s okay!” El smiles, her skin suddenly feeling too tight. “Thank you.” She almost wants to say _screw it_ to the rest of her plans and just spend the day talking to him.

“No problem.” He nods before stepping into the coffee shop, gracefully moving past her. “Enjoy your day.”

_I should have gotten his number,_ El thinks.

“Bye,” she whispers as she heads out the door, back onto the street. If it wasn't for the double/blind date on Friday, she would be kicking herself for not even getting this guy’s name. 

_At least I have that coming up._   


* * *

  
Girls, girls, girls. 

That's all Mike can seem to think about for the past few days. Maybe it's because he knows he's meeting El in two days during that double/blind date on Friday. Or maybe it's because, now that the heist and the planning that went with it are over, his mind has nothing else to think about. If he's being honest, though, relationships haven't been a major part of his life. He's only dated a couple girls, mostly in college, and the longest one of those relationships only lasted six months. Even then, he never felt any emotional connection. But for some reason, he's optimistic. Maybe it's because Lucas is the one setting this up and he doesn't have to rely on his own lack of skills to make this work. Or maybe because he thinks that El might be a good person for him. He doesn't know why, but a feeling of hope bubbles up inside him every time he thinks about Friday. 

_This might work._

Today was an average day for Mike. He woke up at around 10 a.m., took a shower, ate a quick breakfast of eggs and avocados on toast, and went to the gym for a couple hours. Then, he came back to his apartment and wrote a couple pages for another novel he might publish in the future. His first two books were actually received quite well upon their release. It wasn't until around 3:30 p.m. that Mike felt himself getting a little restless and decided that a quick trip to his local coffee shop would relieve some of that tension.

Benny's isn't that far of a walk from Mike's apartment. It’s only a few minutes until he’s walking up to the front door. He quickly flings open the door and almost runs headfirst into a girl who’s buried in her phone.

“Excuse me?” Mike says gently, not wanting to be an asshole to the girl. Due to his height, he can only really see the girl's hair, which hangs down to her shoulders. The girl looks up at him and—

She’s one of the most beautiful people Mike has ever laid his eyes on. Her mouth is slightly open in shock, as she didn’t expect to nearly run headlong into him. When her hazel eyes meet his, he almost melts into a puddle right then and there. They sparkle in the sunlight that beams in from behind him. He can see her hair fully, now, a light brown waterfall of curls.

“Can I help you?” The girl all but whispers back.

“I almost ran into you!” Mike smiles apologetically. He doesn't want her to think that he's trying to be creepy or gross. “Just didn't want to accidentally hurt you!”

“That’s okay!” she chirps with a voice that nearly sends Mike’s heart into palpitations. “Thank you!”

As much as Mike wants to stand in the doorway of the coffee shop and get to know her a little better, he can’t just block the entrance all day.

“No problem.” He nods, his thoughts racing.

_Ask for this girl's number, get her name, get something to hang onto._

Sadly, even though he's not that experienced, Mike knows the time for such questions has passed.

“Enjoy your day,” Mike calls over his shoulder as he walks into the coffee shop. He swears that he can hear her say _bye_ in response, but he isn’t sure. As he's waiting in line for his drink, he can't help but dwell on the missed opportunity.

_Hey, at least I have the double date on Friday to look forward to._   


* * *

  
The handsome stranger’s face still hasn’t left El’s mind by the time she gets back to her apartment.

“What are you smiling about?” Max asks, looking up from the kitchen table with her laptop open in front of her.

“It’s nothing!” Blushing, El tries to change the subject. “What are you doing?”

“Just ordering some new boards for the shop.” Max’s fingers move across the keyboard as quickly as her blue eyes dart across the screen. “We’re getting a lot of sales, so we’re going to have to increase inventory until the end of the summer.”

“I mean, it _is_ nice out.” El shrugs. “People like skating in the summer.”

_“Anyway—”_ Max says, before looking up at El. “I know you’re trying to change the subject, so seriously, what are you smiling about?”

“I already told you, it's nothing!” Even as El denies it, she can’t keep a small smile off her face.

“Are you sure?” Max replies, cocking an eyebrow. “Because if it’s nothing, you better tell that to your face.”

“I just saw this really cute guy at the coffee shop!” El confesses. She sets her bag down on the ground and joins Max at the kitchen table. “Like... the kind of cute that makes the world stop.” 

“Really? That good-looking?” Max smiles, tilting her head. “Describe him.”

“Well, he was like, really tall, easily taller than Lucas, and he had this amazing almost black windswept hair.” A blush burns on El’s cheeks as she drops her head into her hands. “And these adorable little freckles all over his cheeks.”

“He sounds a _lot_ like Mike.” Max giggles. “Maybe it was him. He does live around here.”

“If Mike is half as cute as this guy,” El says, “I would probably end up marrying him on the spot.”

Max’s smile fades as her expression turns serious. “Have you thought about marriage?” 

“Why do you ask?” Max doesn't really get serious, especially about romantic topics...

“I’ve just been thinking, since Lucas and I have been dating for four years now, we’ll most likely end up getting married. And I’ve never seen you with a guy that’s made you feel that way. I guess I was just wondering out loud.” Max must have senses El getting uncomfortable, as she quickly adds, “I understand if you don’t feel like saying anything, though. I was just thinking.”

As El sits there, pondering Max's question, she can't help but be honest with herself. She's never thought about marriage. Marriage has always been such a distant concept to her, mostly out of fear. She's so afraid of what will happen if the person she's with finds out she's Gifted. Plus, it hasn't helped that her father is the chief of police, meaning that every man that wants to date her is perpetually scared of him. 

“Marriage just never seemed like an option for me,” El begins, her voice unsure. “I guess I'm just scared of what people might think of me. I’m kind of nervous about the whole idea.”

“Yeah, I understand.” Max places her hand on El’s. “Sorry I brought it up.”

“It's okay!” El forces a smile, her thoughts still racing around marriage, relationships, and all the fear that comes with that thought process. It doesn't help that the crushing realization that she’s probably never going to see the gorgeous coffee shop man again hits her like a train.

_I was so close. I should have done more. Maybe he was the one._

“What do you want to do for dinner?” Max asks suddenly, changing the subject. “I was thinking of that pizza place down the street.”

“Sounds good,” El says as her thoughts finally slow to a _manageable_ clusterfuck. “I could use some food.”

_Maybe Friday is going to be okay._   


* * *

  
“So Mike,” Will says, standing with arms crossed in his open doorway. “What brings you to my apartment at this time of day?”

“I just wanted to talk!” Mike shrugs, taking a sip from his paper coffee cup. “Since we’re not really planning anything else for a couple weeks, I thought we could just hang out.”

“Hmm.” Will feigns thinking about it. “Okay. You may enter.”

“Is Aaron here?” Mike asks as he steps into the apartment, glancing around at the various paintings on the walls—most of them Will’s—before plopping down on the living room couch.

“Nope,” Will says, heading into the kitchen. “He’s visiting family. It’s his cousin’s Quinceañera.”

“Oh, cool.” Mike takes another sip of his coffee.

“I see you have coffee, but do you want anything else?” Will asks, popping his head out from the fridge.

“Nah, I'm good.”

“Alright.” Will nods before grabbing a beer out of the fridge and popping it open. 

“So how’s it going with your paintings?” Mike asks as Will sits down next to him on the couch.

“Pretty good!” Will grins, taking a sip of his beer. ”I’ve actually managed to sell a couple these past few weeks.”

“That’s awesome!” Mike smiles before pointing to a painting hanging above the television, of a tranquil meadow surrounding a solitary oak tree, with a tire swing hanging from one of its branches. “When did you add that one?”

“Oh, that one? I painted it about a week before we did Gold Credit. I just woke up in the middle of the night and was inspired, so I knocked it out in a couple days. It just kind of came into my life out of nowhere.”

“Jesus Christ man, you’re talented.”

“Hah. Thanks.” Will sets his beer down on a coaster on the coffee table. Mike watches his face slowly turn serious, as his brows knit and his smile fades. “Can I ask you a serious question?”

“Sure.” Mike raises an eyebrow in curiosity. “What's up?”

“Do you think we'll be able to ever give this up?”

“Give what up?”

“You know, robbing banks, being criminals, being on the run.” Will shrugs as he begins to ramble. “I've been thinking about it. We all have our side projects. Lucas can play the stock market like no one's business. It's a tragedy Dustin isn’t some multi-millionaire CEO by now. And your novels are really good. One of these days, we could probably just stop robbing and actually live our lives as productive members of society.“

Mike takes a while to process everything Will just said. It’s crossed his mind before, the idea of what happens next. Everyone else at least has lives, or relationships, that they can fall back on when this is all over. But for Mike, this is all he has. Mike knows that eventually, his time will be up, and his life of crime will have to end. Will’s right—Mike’s novels are starting to get some traction, so maybe one day he can settle down, hopefully with the love of his life, and live the lavish life of a famous author. Hell, maybe he could even be the next Stephen King.

“I mean, I guess,” Mike answers with a shrug of his own. “But where’s the fun in that? If we all really wanted to settle down after college, we would have. But we got addicted to the thrill. We've been doing this since we were twenty, and six years later, I still get an adrenaline rush every time we walk into a bank, every time you crack a vault, every time we evade the cops. I think eventually, by the time we're like thirty, the thrill _might_ be gone. But for now I still feel pretty good.”

“Yeah, I guess.” Will nods before picking up his beer again and turning back to Mike. “So, I heard you might have romance in your future…?”

Mike nearly chokes on his coffee “What?!”

“Lucas told me he’s trying to set up with Max’s roommate,” Will says nonchalantly. “How’s that coming along?”

“Oh. Yeah, he is. I’m actually meeting her during a double date on Friday.” 

“That’s cool. Anything else interesting happening? I know you stopped using Tinder.” 

“Actually… something happened just before I came here.” Mike’s thoughts are quickly rushed by the girl’s face. A small blush begins to work its way up his cheeks.

“Really? What happened?”

“I saw this _amazing_ girl at the coffee shop.” Mike starts to smile, his blush spreading. “You know how there are girls you call cute, and girls you call pretty, but there are some girls that just cause you to stop? She was one of those girls.”

“Yeah?” A soft smile crosses Will’s face. “Tell me about her.”

“She had these incredible hazel eyes that looked just like honey and glittered like gold.” Mike’s smile grows wider as he paints a picture of this girl for Will. “And her hair! God, it was just this beautiful waterfall of curls.”

Mike’s face turns solemn as the realization that he’s probably never going to see her again hits him.

“I know I’m probably never going to see her again,” he continues. “Chicago’s a pretty big city, after all. I didn’t even get her number. So who knows what’s going to happen? But hey, I still have a date to look forward to.”

“Mike, I know you haven’t had the best luck or the most experience in that area.” Will smiles faintly as he places a comforting hand on Mike’s knee. “But who knows what’s going to happen on Friday? Maybe Lucas is right. Maybe this girl is perfect for you.”

Mike smiles wistfully at the prospect of the perfect girl for him.

“Yeah,” Mike says. “I hope so.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Feel free to leave a kudos or comment.
> 
> Check me out on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/Jacketsarepants)
> 
> Next chapter should be out in a couple weeks.


	4. Double Blind

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this chapter took a while. It's just with everything happening both in my life and the world, this chapter took a while to edit. I hope everyone is doing well.

**_Friday June 14th  
Chicago, Illinois_ **

Mike is nervous.

There’s no other way to justify his thundering heart and racing thoughts as he stands in front of his open closet, his hair still damp from the shower. 

_I rob banks for a living! How hard can a date be?_

The plan for tonight is simple. First, Mike is going to meet Lucas, Max, and El at Classico, a Mexican restaurant a few blocks away. From there, depending on how well dinner goes, the four of them are going to go to the Dungeon, a local arcade that serves alcohol and caters to a more adult crowd. It was Lucas' idea to do dinner and an arcade. Despite the fact that the four boys are hardened criminals, they’re still nerds at heart. Plus, dinner and classic video games is something that Mike would never turn down, and he’s actually pretty comfortable with Max. Sure, he hasn't really interacted with her much in the past couple months due to all the craziness of heist planning and her own difficulties with her skate shop, but Max is a good person who’s quick with a joke and even quicker with a comeback. It's El that gives Mike his current clusterfuck of emotions.

El. The one that Lucas and Max have been swearing up and down is perfect for Mike. But call it cynicism or fear, he’s wary to believe it. 

_Maybe I’m still hung up on the girl from the coffee shop._

Mike would be lying if he said that the girl's face hasn’t haunted him for the past two days. She’s been running through his dreams—just being there, outside his reach, as if he’s chasing her to find out who she is. When Mike told Dustin about her, Dustin said simply that Mike just wants to live with the idea of what the coffee shop girl could have been. That Mike is so scared of being rejected that he’d rather live in a _what if_ than pursue something real—and because of that, Mike’s going to ignore the people right in front of his eyes.

Mike knows that Dustin’s right. He needs to stop living in his head and start living in reality. He’s about an hour away from meeting a girl who, according to both Max and Lucas, is perfect for him. Plus, El knows little to nothing about him. He’s going to start off with a fresh slate, and a mind free of judgments and preconceived notions.

_Why am I still hung up on this coffee shop girl when a very real possibility is in front of me?_

Suddenly, Mike’s cell phone starts to ring. He walks over to the nightstand to grab it and sees Nancy’s name flash across the screen. “Hey Nance,” he answers.

“Hey little bro!” Nancy chirps over the phone. “What's up?”

“Nothing much,” Mike says. “Why are you calling? Don't you still have articles to write? I know you're only an hour ahead of me.”

“I'm on a weird shift, actually. They're having me work from twelve to eight, so technically I'm on lunch right now.”

“That's weird. Anyway, what's up?”

“Just wanted to check up on you. Mom’s been getting on my case ‘cause I haven’t called home in a while, and she mentioned that you haven’t, either. So I thought I’d see how you’re doing.”

“I'm doing okay.” Mike’s eyes roam over the inside of his closet. “Just trying to decide what to wear tonight.”

“Really? Why? Are you doing anything special?” Even though Mike can’t see her face, he knows she's raising an eyebrow in classic Nancy fashion. 

“Uh, kind of.” Mike smiles nervously. At the thought of the double date, his thoughts start to jumble again. “Lucas is trying to set me up with his girlfriend’s roommate. So I guess I have a date.”

“A date?!” Mike can practically see the smile on Nancy’s face. “How's that been going along?” 

“Not great,” Mike answers. “I’m fucking freaking out right now.”

”Of course you are, Mike.” Nancy giggles without a trace of malice. “Dating isn't exactly your forte.”

“I guess. I’m just worried about whether it’s going to work out."

“Yeah, I hear you, man. But hey, you have to take a chance.”

“I know,” Mike moans, pinching the bridge of his nose. “I'm just nervous—” 

“And that's perfectly okay, Mike,” Nancy cuts him off. “But what’s the worst that could happen?”

Mike sighs. “I don’t know. This girl hates me. Or I find her absolutely fucking revolting and can’t stand her.”

“Wow,” Nancy says, “you went dark. But listen. The worst case scenario is that you have an awkward one-hour dinner, go home, and enjoy yourself again. Plus, who cares if this girl doesn’t work out? You’ll find someone regardless. I mean, look at my romantic life. How long did it take me to find Jonathan?”

“Well, he did kind of ask you out in high school. And you guys _have_ been dating ever since.”

“Okay, okay, fine. I just want you to know that your perfect person is out there. You’ve known Lucas since 4th grade, and you’ve known Max for years now, so you should trust their judgment. If they think this girl is good for you, maybe she is.”

“Yeah, I guess you're right.” Mike begins to smile. Nancy may be hundreds of miles away in New York City, but she still knows what to say to make Mike feel at least a little better about himself. “I have nothing to lose, so why not take a chance?”

“That's the spirit, Mike!” Nancy laughs “Now, what are you wearing tonight?”

“Ugh. I have no idea.” Mike scratches the back of his neck. “I mean, we’re going to a pretty casual restaurant, so I’m not busting out the suit and tie. But I’m also not trying to show up in sweatpants.”

“What do you have so far?”

“Obviously, I want to wear my nicest jeans”

“Are those the black skinny ones that make your legs look like three times longer than they actually are?”

“Yeah. And for shoes, I’m thinking my red Converse.”

“Sounds good. What about shirts? 

“See, I don't know.” Mike reaches into his closet and begins to shift the clothes around. “I mean, I would wear a sweater or something because those tend to look good on me, but considering it's the middle of June, I probably shouldn’t.”

“How about a nerdy T-shirt?” Nancy asks with a slight chuckle.

“Well, we _are_ going to an arcade after dinner, so I can assume she’s as much of a nerd as the rest of us.”

“Do you still have that Captain America t-shirt I got you a couple years ago?”

“The one that’s kinda tight?”

“Yes! That one. Trust me, it would show off your arms.”

“Huh,” Mike says. “Yeah. That could work.”

“See, Mike, all you just need to do is take a chance. And if it doesn't work out, you know you can call me later and cry.”

That last comment brings a smile onto Mike’s lips. “Thanks, Nancy. I feel a lot better. It was good to talk to you.”

“It was good to talk to you, too.”

“Give Jonathan my best.”

“Will do,” Nancy says. “Don't forget to call Mom.”

“I won’t.” Mike chuckles. “Take it easy, Nance.”

“Always. Good luck tonight!”

“Bye.”

“Bye!”

Mike places his phone back down on the nightstand and turns back to his closet with a smile. 

_Tonight is going to be a good night._

  


* * *

  


As El plays her 15th game of Crossy Road in a row, she can't help but feel nervous. There's nothing else she can do to distract her racing mind. She’s already prepared everything for tonight. Her Uber has been ordered and should be arriving in 25 minutes. She’s already dressed, as she and Max spent hours last night agonizing over what to wear. El can still hear the conversation replaying in her mind. 

“Well, since we're not going too fancy, I probably don't have to wear a dress.”

“But you look really cute in dresses.”

“I could just wear a pair of jeans.”

“Really, jeans?” Max said, having raised an eyebrow. “It's still hot outside.” 

El shrugged. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.

Max proceeded to tear apart El’s closet, picking out items of clothing El didn't even know she owned anymore. After what felt like hours, they finally settled on a simple outfit of a royal blue A-line dress with a pair of black combat boots (courtesy of Max). Her makeup is simple, just highlighting her cheekbones and eyes. 

El plays with the hem of the dress as her nerves stampede through her body, her thoughts amplified by the silence of the apartment since Max left earlier to meet up with Lucas.

_When was the last time I even had a date? When was the last time I was even remotely excited for a date?_

To say the past couple days have been confusing for El would be an understatement. First, she found out she had a blind date with someone she’d only ever heard of once—and that has been when Lucas mentioned his name during a drunken ramble three months ago. Then, on Wednesday, she met the most beautiful person in the world, only for him to completely vanish into the anonymity of the city. On Thursday, the crushing realization that El will probably never see him again finally hit.

Then, last night, after they picked out El’s outfit, Max and El had an intense conversation about how El is too scared, and how she would rather live with fantasies than try out reality. El sighs as the memory crosses her mind again.

_Max is right. I need to at least try._

But as El sits on the couch waiting for her Uber, she finds herself getting increasingly more restless. Finally, she grabs her phone and scrolls through her contacts to call the one person that can help her come down from her anxiety.

“Hey kid,” Hopper’s gruff voice answers. “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, everything’s fine, Hop.” El relaxes a little bit at the sound of his voice. “I’m just kind of nervous. Are you busy?”

“When am I ever busy?” Hopper laughs. “But trust me, it’s good to hear your voice, sweetheart. What’s up?”

“I'm just really anxious,” El says, running her hand through her hair. “I have a date tonight.”

“Oh, a date!” Hopper says. “Where'd you meet him? Do I have to go around and flash my badge?”

“Dad, you said you would stop doing that after high school,” El groans, her hand moving from her hair to pinch the bridge of her nose.

“I said I would stop,” Hopper jokes. “I never did stop, though.”

“You’re not wrong.” El giggles. “It’s a blind date. Max set me up with him.”

“How does she know him?” Hopper asks, his tone inquisitive, like he is trying to solve a riddle.

“He’s one of her boyfriend’s good friends, so we can assume that he’s pretty similar to Lucas. But I’m still nervous.”

“Are you nervous because you think he's going to be a bad person?”

“That's not the problem. Max and Lucas have good taste.” El sighs. “So it's not like they're going to hook me up with, like, a criminal or anything. I’m just scared.”

“What are you scared of?”

“What if he doesn't like me for who I am?”

“What, the daughter of the police chief?”

“No, I mean…” El sighs. “What if he doesn’t like me because I’m Gifted?”

“El, you’re more than Gifted.” Hopper’s tone suddenly becomes calm and quiet, just like how he used to speak to El when she called home from college. “Think of all the kids that come through your office every day. Do they even know you’re Gifted? No, but they still love you, El. Just like I love you. You’re worth it.”

A smile begins to work its way onto El’s face as she thinks about her students. Even though school is ending in 8 days, she still has a never-ending parade coming through her door—whether it’s seniors finalizing their AP credits to make sure their college receives them, juniors making sure their senior year is going to be the best is can possible be, or freshmen coming through and reacting to their first year at school. With the exception of some kids, most of them have beaming smiles on their faces when they enter and even bigger smiles when they leave. 

“El, you’re a beautiful person. If this guy can’t see that, well then fuck him.” El’s eyes widen at Hopper’s sudden profanity. “Okay?”

“Okay.” El smiles. Hopper always knows what to say to lift her spirits. “Thanks, Dad. How’s work?”

“Stressful as always,” Hopper groans. “After the robbery last week, the Black Tie Crew has gone silent. None of their contacts have even said anything, and we've haven't been able to track anything either.”

“I'm sorry about that.”

“Which reminds me,” Hopper says, “I do need to get back to work.”

“I won’t hold you any longer. Sorry, Dad!”

‘Don’t be sorry. I love hearing from you.”

“Thanks, Dad.”

“Good luck, Kid.”

“Goodbye, I love you.”

“Goodbye, love you too.” 

With a click, El is back alone in her apartment. She places her phone down next to her and attempts some breathing exercises, just to try and keep her heart rate steady. She does it for a few minutes when suddenly her phone goes off with a notification. Upon checking it, she sees that her Uber has arrived. With a final sweep of the apartment along with a final check of her outfit in her floor-length mirror, El heads downstairs and into the Uber parked outside her apartment building.

The restaurant isn't too far away from El’s apartment. It's just that she doesn't want to walk, and plus, it pays to be comfortable before something so nerve-wracking. The ride there is short, but it still gives El one last chance to think everything over.

_It's going to be okay. Even if it goes badly, Max and I are going to wake up tomorrow morning, drink wine, and eat ice cream. I have nothing to worry about._

Suddenly her Uber driver’s voice snaps her out of her thoughts. 

“Hey, I can't get you closer, they blocked off the street to the restaurant. So I'm just going to drop you off in the corner and you can walk from there. Is that okay?”

“That's fine,” El says. 

The car pulls to a stop on the street corner. 

“Have a good night!” the driver says.

“Thank you!” El steps out of the car and begins to walk towards the restaurant. She can’t help but notice all the people walking around. Despite the fact that the sun is still out, it is a Friday night during the summer, and she’s in one of the more active parts of downtown. El scans the crowd around her when suddenly—

_Oh._

She sees him. The coffee shop man, the person of her dreams, strolling down the sidewalk with his head peeking above most of the people around. He somehow looks even more beautiful than when she first saw him. His long legs are encased in black skinny jeans that show the curves of the muscles beneath Opposed to the loose fitting workout shirt he was wearing on Wednesday, he’s now wearing a tight blue shirt that has Captain America’s logo printed on the chest. She can see the gentle shape of his lean muscles shift beneath the fabric as he walks in her direction. He doesn't see her as he's looking at his phone but abruptly he stops and looks up toward the front of Classico. El’s feet quicken as she heads towards the restaurant, hoping to maybe catch him before he enters and before she attempts her own date. However, he enters the restaurant when she's still a couple feet away. He doesn't see her as he heads inside with El tracking his movements from the restaurant’s front windows. From her vantage point, she sees him speak briefly to the hostess before he is pointed in the direction of a booth. El can't see who's sitting at that table as they're hidden behind the booth wall, but as he approaches the occupants of the table stand up and—

_Oh my God!_

_Is that Max and Lucas?!_

They greet him with open arms and quick kisses on the cheek. El’s eyes widen and her jaw drops at the realization she comes to.

_IS HE MIKE?!_

  


* * *

  


“So how'd you get here?” Lucas asks as he sits down from greeting Mike, Max doing the same. “Did you take out the Mustang for tonight?”

“Oh, I just walked” Mike sits down across the booth from Max and next to Lucas. “I mean, I can't imagine driving, they closed down the street.”

“Do you know why?” Max asks. 

“Fuck if I know.” Mike shrugs. “Anyway, is she here yet?” Despite Mike not saying her name, Max and Lucas know exactly who _she_ is.

“Not yet,” Lucas says. “She texted Max when she left her apartment—”

“She should be here in five or ten minutes,” Max interjects.

“Alright, cool.” Mike nods before nervously changing the subject. “How’s the skateshop doing, Max?”

“Pretty good!” Max beams. “Actually you should stop by one day and let me teach you how to skate.”

“Are you kidding me, Max?” Mike laughs. “I'm the clumsiest person in the world. You and I both know that.”

“Bullshit! Come on.” Max rolls her eyes. “You're probably the most physically gifted out of all of us.”

At the word _gifted,_ Mike’s eyes widen. That’s one of the few things about himself he has managed to keep a secret from Max.

“Trust me,” he says. “You don’t want to see my skateboard. It would be _bad._ ”

“Whatever.” Max giggles, turning her attention toward Lucas. “Anyway, I've been trying to get Lucas to fucking skateboard with me and he keeps saying that it's dumb and hasn't been relevant since 2009.” 

Suddenly, the sound of the front door opening catches Mike’s attention. He looks up to see what random person has just joined the small crowd of people in the restaurant and—

_Oh._

Walking through the front door of the restaurant is the girl that has been running through Mike’s dreams, the one that he’s desperately wanted to see again for days. She stops briefly to check her phone and Mike takes the opportunity to drink in the sight of her amazing outfit and somehow even more beautiful face. She’s wearing an A-line dress that’s a deep shade of blue, contrasting perfectly with the pink undertones of her skin and showing off the hollows of her collarbones. She looks taller than before, but Mike notices that she’s wearing midnight black combat boots, like something that Max would wear. At the sight of her, his thoughts begin to turn anxious and self-deprecating.

_Fate is cruel. The girl I’ve been looking for—the girl of my dreams—walks into this restaurant, probably waiting for a date of her own. So she’s going to be sitting right here while I awkwardly try to make small talk with some random girl that Max and Lucas swear is good for me._

Mike’s self doubt continues to creep through his body. However, to his surprise, she stops in front of the hostess and exchanges a few words with her before the hostess points her in the general direction of the booth that he's currently seated at.

As she walks toward the booth, time slows down.

Suddenly he hears Lucas exclaim, “El! You’ve made it!”

Mike is surprised he can hear anything as his heartbeat seems to have taken up residence in his ears. 

_SHE’S EL?!_

“Oh my God,” Mike whispers without even thinking. “You’re El.” 

Her beautiful eyes meet his and it's like he's back at the coffee shop, instantly enamored with her.

“You’re Mike,” she breathes, her lips barely parting.

“Wait! Do you... have you two met before?” Max asks.

“Do you remember the coffee shop guy I told you about?” El all but whispers before Max quickly nods in confirmation. “That's him.”

“Yeah... we ran into each other,” Mike says, ducking his head.

“Wait!” Lucas shouts. “This is the girl that you talked about with Dustin!”

Mike nods. His cheeks flush red with embarrassment. “Yeah.”

Max and Lucas lock eyes. “OH MY GOD!” they exclaim at once, before breaking into laughter that has them both collapsing against the table.

Finally, Mike braves the awkwardness and decides to introduce himself. “I'm, um… I'm sorry I wasn't able to do this on Wednesday, but...” He extends his hand. “Hi, I'm Mike.” 

El smiles sweetly as she takes Mike’s hand. Electricity shoots through Mike’s body as her skin touches his. “I'm El.”

“Pleasure to meet you properly.” Mike grins, his heart still pounding.

“Nice to meet you, too.” El matches Mike’s smile and takes her seat across from him. 

  


* * *

  


As El leans against the cool brick wall outside the arcade, she can't help but feel overjoyed by the events of the last five hours. First, the dinner went incredibly. The second she sat down, all the initial awkwardness melted away and she felt a true connection to Mike. They talked about everything and nothing at the same time, with El sharing details about her work, Mike sharing details about his novels, their mutual love of Star Wars, and their mutual hatred of pickles. Then, at Max’s suggestion, they went to the Dungeon, a local arcade with a bar in the back. El lost herself in hours of classic video games and friendly competition. But eventually, she felt overstimulated, and had to go outside.

“Hey, El?” A soft voice that El’s grown increasingly familiar with over the past couple hours breaks her concentration. “Is everything okay?” She turns to see Mike standing next to her with a concerned look on his face, his eyebrows knitted together.

“Everything’s fine.” El smiles up at him, trying to keep her racing heart under wraps. “Everything’s great. I just needed a few minutes. I was getting a little overstimulated.”

“Yeah, Max and Lucas do take Dig Dug very seriously,” Mike says wistfully, as memories from previous competitions flow through his mind, before turning his attention back to El. “Are you sure? Like, if it's something I said, I'm really sorry and I didn't want to make you feel uncomfortable—”

“No Mike, you didn't do anything wrong.” El cuts him off as a blush spreads across her face.

_God. He’s so cute when he’s nervous._

“It's not that. It's just...” El continues as she struggles to find the right wording. “I honestly didn’t expect this to go well. So the fact that it’s going so great just kind of frazzled me. Between that and all the lights and sounds in there… it just kind of overwhelmed me with emotion.”

Mike looks at her, his face turning from confusion to shock to a wide grin that spreads across the cheeks. “Trust me, I know how you feel. I wasn’t expecting much either. I was…” Mike pauses, looking nervously at his shoes before continuing. “Tonight has been really fun. I don’t know if you feel the same way, but I’d like to see you again. Maybe just the two of us?”

El’s heart starts racing anew.

_YES! YES! YES! A MILLION TIMES YES!_

But she doesn't want to scream or freak him out, so she manages to hold everything behind just a simple smile. “I would love that, Mike.” 

Mike opens his mouth to say something. “Can I—”

“Hey asshats! Over here!” Max’s voice pierces through Mike and El’s moment, bringing them both back to the outside world. They both turn to see Max and Lucas standing by the entrance of the arcade, swaying heavily. “Yo, we're going home,” Max slurs, pointing to Mike. “Mike, Lucas says you and him have something to do tomorrow so do you mind riding home with him?” Then, Max turns to El. “And then me and El can share an Uber back to our place.” 

“Yeah that sounds like that works,” Mike says, reaching up to rub the back of his neck.

“I’m okay with that!” El chirps.

“Cool,” Lucas says. “I just called the Ubers, so they should be here in a couple minutes.”

Mike turns back to El. “I think I left my phone inside. Be right back.” He quickly disappears into the arcade, leaving El to walk towards Max. 

“Hey, Max.” El says as she approaches the clearly intoxicated redhead. 

Max’s unfocused eyes struggle to find El’s face. “Hi.”

“I'm sorry I had to leave.” El sighs. “It was just getting too much.” 

“That's okay,” Max says, almost dreamily. “I kicked the shit out of Lucas on Street Fighter.”

“Of course you did, Max.” El smiles. “Of course you did.”

Suddenly, the door to the arcade swings open and out steps Mike.

“Lucas!” he shouts. “How far away are the Ubers?”

“Uh.” Lucas glances down at his phone. “Literally a minute. Max and El’s is a few blocks away and ours is right down the street.”

“Alright.” Mike quickly turns to El, about to say something on the tip of the tongue, before Max interrupts.

“Mike,” she says, “we need to fight again. I kicked your ass the last time we fucking went one-on-one. Next time we come here, me, you, Mortal Kombat.” 

“Okay.” Mike turns away from the interruption with a look on his face as if he wants to say something to El but he's struggling to find the words.

“Mike!” Lucas shouts, snapping his attention away from El and Max. “It’s here!”

_Now's your chance, El._

“Hey, Mike?” El says. She reaches out to grab his forearm, feeling his muscles tense at her touch.

“Yeah?” Mike turns from Lucas and looks down. His eyes meet hers.

They stare at each other—Mike unsure of what’s about to happen, El struggling to build up the courage to speak.

“Can I have your number?” El stammers, trying her best to not let her nervousness show. She feels his forearm relax under her fingers.

“Yeah!” Mike smiles. “Of course. I was just about to ask for yours.” He quickly digs in his pocket and pulls out his phone. He swipes to open it and, after a few typing motions, he hands the phone to her, a blank contact page on the screen. “You can put any name you want.”

“I’m not that silly.” El giggles, taking the phone and typing in her name and number, and then handing it back. “Text me when you get home?”

Mike raises an eyebrow. “Why is your name Eggo?”

“That’s for me to know.” El smiles while biting her lip. 

_Where the hell is this energy coming from?_

“And for you to find out,” she adds.

_DID I REALLY JUST SAY THAT?_

“Oh,” Mike gasps, his cheeks reddening.

“MIKE!” Lucas screams from next to the Uber. “We have to go!” 

“Um… I’ll text you when I get home.” With a nervous smile, Mike leaves El to rush over to Lucas. With a final wave to Max and El, he disappears into the back of the car and it pulls away, leaving the girls behind. 

As the taillights disappear into the night, El sighs. 

_Tonight has been amazing and he's so nice and so kind and I feel something with him that I haven't felt in a while._

“Hey, El!” Max’s voice snaps El out of her mind.

“What's up?”

“You have it bad,” Max slurs while a dopey grin spreads across her face. “Don't you?”

El giggles. “Maybe,” she says, just as another car pulls up to the curb.

“This is it. Come on.” Max walks towards the passenger side window and signals to the driver to roll it down. The driver rolls the window down, revealing a man with a mustache. 

“Are you Randy? Max asks.

“Yep!” The man nods. “Are you Max?”

“Yeah, I’m Max. This is Eleanor.” Max opens the back door of the car and the two of them get in. The Uber pulls away from the curb, beginning the journey back to their apartment. 

Halfway through the ride, El’s phone vibrates. She checks it and sees a single message that simply reads, **_“Can I please get a hint?”_** El smiles. Even though she didn't recognize the number, she immediately knows who it is.

_Maybe things might work out with Mike._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!


	5. Secrets to Keep

_**Tuesday July 9th  
Chicago, Illinois** _

El slowly opens her eyes to the sunlight beaming in through her window. She grabs for her phone on her nightstand and, after tiredly searching for the home button, turns it on to see the time.

_9:23. I’m so happy guidance counselors get summer break too._

However, it's the notification underneath the time that truly makes her heart flip flop in her chest. The simple text message is only three words, from a contact labeled Skyscraper, but it's enough to send her into overdrive.

_**Good morning, El!** _

To say her relationship with Mike has blossomed ever since their first ‘date’ 3 weeks ago would be an understatement. The day after, they started texting regularly and she found out so much more about him that kept melting her heart. She learned about his two sisters and his ideas for future plot points in his upcoming novel. Every piece of info she hears, she locks away in a little box in the ever growing part of her mind dedicated to Mike. 

They still haven't really gone on a real date yet. El blushes at the thought of that would entail: Mike looking dashing in an amazing suit, herself dressed to the nines in a beautiful dress, a nice soft candlelit romantic dinner, drinks, desserts, kissing, maybe a little bit of fun afterwards~who knows? But for now, they’ve only really met up for coffee here and there. She did spend the Fourth of July with him, along with Max, Lucas and a couple of Lucas’ other friends named Will and Dustin. Each day, she and Mike seem to be heading closer and closer in the direction of, hopefully, boyfriend and girlfriend. Sadly, they haven't kissed yet. 

_God, I want to kiss his soft lips so badly._

Even though she wants to kiss Mike with every ounce of her soul, there's no guarantee that he's going to be into it, and she doesn't want to force him to make a decision on that aspect of their still-growing relationship so quickly. 

However today, El doesn't feel like she's willing to settle for less. She doesn't want to just text him, she wants to hear his voice. So she picks up the phone, taps away at the screen, and places it to her ear, hearing it ring. After the second ring, she's finally greeted by the surprisingly chipper voice of Mike/

“Hey, what's up?” he greets without a trace of exhaustion in his voice.

“How are you so awake right now?” El responds, her voice still rough with sleep.

“I have a meeting with my editor at 10:30, so I had to get up early in order to get the rest of my morning routine out of the way.”

“Your morning routine?” El jokes. “What does that look like? Running your hands through your hair hoping something sticks?”

“Shut up!” Mike jokes back. “You know you like my hair.” 

“I do,” El admits, her thoughts unsurprisingly turning dirty. 

_I wonder how it would feel balled up in my hands._

“Anyway,” El continues, turning her thoughts instead to Mike’s novel that he was telling her about. “You have a meeting with your editor? Does that mean your book is almost done?” 

Mike chuckles gently, the sound of it filling El with warmth. “I wish.” He clears his throat before continuing. “It’s not a good meeting, he's kind of mad at me because I only got him five chapters as opposed to the seven that he wanted.”

“Now, you can't rush greatness,” El says. She knows how stressed he can get sometimes about his books.

“Exactly! That's what I told him, but he doesn't seem to trust me.” Mike’s light giggles echo through the phone. “But, El.” His voice suddenly turns softer and El can hear him take a couple deep breaths. “I'm actually happy you called, because I wanted to ask you something.”

“Really?” El asks. She wasn’t expecting anything from the call besides the chance to hear Mike's voice. “What is it?”

“Are you available this Thursday night?”

, _Oh my god, is he about to ask me on an actual date?_

El feels like she could scream out right now, but manages to keep a handle on her emotions when she answers, “Yes, I’m available.”

“Great!” Even though El can't see him right now, she can imagine the massive grin stretching across Mike’s cheeks. “Do you want to go out to dinner?”

“Mike? Are you asking me on a date?” El asks, wanting conformation for the swirling emotions in her mind.

“Uh, yeah.” Mike sounds unsure, as if he can’t believe what he just asked either. “Are you okay with tha—”

“Yes!” El all but yelps, cutting him off.

“Okay,” Mike says, any tension in his body leaving his body with an exhale. “Okay, great. I'm going to plan it out and I'll let you know the time and place.”

“That sounds perfect!” El can’t help the thoughts of candlelit dinner and watching the sunset filling her mind. 

“I have to go now.” El can hear the disappointment in Mike’s voice just as it ripples through her own body. “I’ll text you once the meeting is done.”

“Yes, please.” Even though Mike can’t see her, El smiles. “Goodbye.”

“Bye!”

The second the phone goes silent, El feels like she's back in middle school. Pure overbearing, overwhelming happiness spreads throughout her body as she rolls over, leaving her phone on the nightstand, and screams into her pillow. 

Mike—the most beautiful man on the planet, the man who in just the three weeks she's known him has been so kind, so nice, and so caring, the man El wants to get to know so much better and learn everything he has to offer, the man she sometimes (maybe after a little bit too much to drink) wants to give everything to—asked her out on an official date. Sure, they did get coffee alone before, and they've been talking about a dinner date for quite some time now, but it still doesn't change the fact that El is on cloud nine and nothing's going to let her come down from it.

Yet.  


* * *

  
“Hey Mike, you good?” Lucas asks as the two of them walk down the alleyway leading towards the warehouse. 

“Yeah, I'm fine.” Mike raises his eyebrows. “Why?”

“You just seem a little out of it. Is everything okay at home? How are Nancy and Jonathan doing?”

“They’re fine,” Mike says, “and it's not that.”

“Is it your mom? Is she okay?” 

“She's fine.”

Lucas stops short, forcing Mike to stop alongside him. “Is it El?”

“No,” Mike spits out. Lucas raises an eyebrow. “Okay, fine. Yeah, it’s El.”

Lucas chuckles and places a hand on Mike’s shoulder. “Dude, if you’re having girl problems, you know you can just talk to me about it. She’s Max’s friend, so if anything’s bothering you, I could just send Max a quick text and figure out what’s up.”

“It's just nerves, man.” Mike brushes Lucas’s hand off his shoulder and lazily pulls up the corner of his mouth in an attempt to appear relaxed. Instead, he just looks panicked. “It also doesn't help that this is the first time in a long time I actually have something to lose in this heist.”

“Really?” Lucas scoffs with a sly grin. “You're about to get all philosophical about life and death with me just because you have a girlfriend now?”

“Hey. Hey.” Mike raises a hand to silence Lucas. “Shut the fuck up” They laugh briefly before Mike continues. “But yeah, like I said, I’m just nervous. I have a date with her on Thursday.”

“Really? The day before the heist? Getting a little ballsy there, Mike.”

“Yeah. I was going to ask her out for Friday but I didn’t want to risk it,” Mike says. “You know, just in case anything goes wrong during the heist. I kinda have to pretend I’m not a bank robber.” Mike pauses to try and clear his mind before rambling on. “So I picked Thursday. She’s off from work anyway and she doesn’t have to go back in for development until August, so I guess she has time.”

“I mean I guess.” Lucas shrugs, as both of them continue walking. “You know—”

“Enough about my love life,” Mike cuts Lucas off with a self-deprecating smile. “I don’t even know what Dustin is thinking for this month. It better be good because Brenner is kinda breathing down my neck.”

Lucas shrugs. “Dustin said he’d been planning this one for a while.”

Mike stops dead in his tracks before whipping toward Lucas.

_Dustin can't possibly be thinking about that one._

“Lucas?”

“Yeah?”

“Are you thinking what I'm thinking? Is Dustin thinking about doing Care Package?”

Lucas’ eyes widen, and Mike can almost see the thought process work through Lucas’ mind. After a few seconds, Lucas says, “I swear to God, if this is the one, we are about to get fucked.”

The two of them continue to walk in silence before arriving at a metal door with no markings on the side of the warehouse. Lucas reaches out and places his hand on the door handle. Almost instantly, the handle scans his fingerprints and the door unlocks. They walk into the warehouse, their feet echoing inside.

“Hey, Dustin,” Mike says as he waves to the two men standing over the table covered in blueprints and firearms. “Hey, Will.”

“Hi!” Will waves back.

“Mike is on time for the first time in his life.” Dustin smirks, gesturing with a wave of his hand to the empty spots around the table.

“Hey, shut up.” Mike points at Dustin while Lucas snickers. “I was late last time but that was because I almost got robbed.”

“Yeah, we know,” Will says with a smile.

Mike leans over the table with both hands to examine the blueprints. “So what are we doing?”

“Well,” Dustin begins. “Will and I were just talking and we're going to do it.” He pauses for dramatic effect, eyeing the men around him. “We're going to rob the Benevolent Bank.” 

Mike and Lucas stand there agape as the realization works through their minds.

Lucas is the first to speak after Dustin’s bombshell. “Let me get this straight. The Benevolent fucking Bank.” He pauses to wait for an answer. Dustin nods. “One of the largest banks in Chicago with a vault that can fucking survive a nuclear warhead—”

“WE'RE ROBBING THE BENEVOLENT BANK!” Mike screams, cutting off Lucas in the process. 

Dustin stares, blinking slowly every so often at Mike's outburst. He swings his eyes around the table before returning to Mike and addressing him. “Yes. Will has been improving his skills recently and I’m confident he can crack it.”

“I've been putting in some extra hours and it's going to be difficult, but I can do it,” Will adds, with a proud grin on his face.

“Okay, so let me get this straight,” Mike says. “We’re about to go to the largest bank in Chicago, walk in, and steal how much money?” He finishes by snapping his head to Dustin, seemingly daring him to answer.

“Mike, I was getting there,” Dustin says flatly before turning to face all of them, “Alright, as you can see...” He quickly runs to a nearby file cabinet and pulls out some blueprints. He lays them down on the table to show them to the others. “The bank is actually not that big. The reason it's such a massive building is due to these offices on the second and third floors. These are trading offices. They deal with things like stocks and even cryptocurrencies. We're going to ignore these completely.” The others nod while Dustin continues on with the plan. “This is the way it's laid out. There’s a massive lobby area.” He circles the area on the blueprint with a marker. “That’s your traditional waiting area with your tellers and cash drawers. There’s a side area, which has a secluded managers office. Judging from surveillance, we won’t need to access the manager's office to access the vault. There are a couple other offices on the first floor as well that deal with various other projects that we don't have to deal with. Are we following along?”

“Yep,” Lucas says, popping the p in the word.

“Gotcha,” Mike adds, while Will simply nods. 

“Keep in mind gentleman, this is just a rough plan. The finalized plan including specific equipment will be completed by Friday when we all meet here for the briefing beforehand.” Dustin points around the warehouse to the various lockers and cabinets. “The basic plan is that the four of us are going to walk in, Lucas and Mike will be running lobby duty as we can't afford to have someone outside the bank this time, sorry Lucas, then Will and I will gain access to the vault area,” Dustin says, pointing to a large area located behind the teller windows on the blueprints. “There will be guards here but Will and I can deal with them pretty easily. Once we’re in front of the vault, we’ll signal the two of you and Will will begin his cracking process. The process should take, according to my math, and Will and I are going to run a final test on Thursday, about two minutes. The second the vault is open, I will contact you two...” Dustin points at Mike and Lucas “...using the earpieces. You guys will leave the lobby and come to the back to help us bag up the loot. Then, we all leave through the side entrance. I'll scramble police radios, so that should give us a nice five minute head start to get out of there in case the alarm sounds.”

“Are panic buttons going to disabled,” Lucas asks, “or are Mike and I going to guard them?”

“I've managed to hack into the bank security system so there should be no security cameras or panic buttons.” Dustin smiles, obviously proud of himself.

“And for civilian cell phones?” Mike asks.

“We’ll bring a cell phone jammer,” Dustin adds, before clapping his hands together. “So that should cover all our bases. The specific equipment will be determined by Friday.”

Will begins, taking over for Dustin. “We're packing standard munitions. Suits, masks, and extra body armor for Mike and Lucas just in case. As for weapons, I’m, of course, going in empty-handed. Dustin will be carrying his standard pistol. Lucas and Mike, you two will be carrying your personalized rifles and pistols. I don’t expect us to use them. Any questions?” He finishes, facing Mike and Lucas, whose faces have changed from their initial shock and disbelief to nods of understanding and smiles of excitement.

“What’s the take?” Mike asks with a wolfish grin.

“We’re looking somewhere in the ballpark of about…” Dustin smiles, all but yelling the rest. “...fifteen million.”

“FIFTEEN FUCKING MILLION?!” Lucas and Mike exclaim at once.

“HOW?!” Will asks, apparently not having discussed it with Dustin before the others arrived.

Dustin holds his hands up in an attempt to calm the others down. “Not all of it will be in cash. It’s my understanding that the vault is holding some precious items such as jewels and gold in safekeeping for clients. Just cash would be about three million, but with the other items, it will be about fifteen million.” Dustin pauses for effect. “Gentleman,” he says, “if we pull this off, which I know we will, we would successfully pull off one of the largest bank heists in Chicago.”  


* * *

  
**Knock knock.**

El taps her fist against the rusty metal door. A slot in the door opens up, revealing a pair of angry eyes staring at her. 

“Password,” a harsh voice spits out 

“Butterfly,” El replies, having done this security measure many times before.

“Come in.”

Multiple locks on the other side audibly unlatch before the door swings open, revealing a large man whose very presence emanates ‘do not fuck with me’ energy.

“She's in the back,” the man says. “You know where.”

“Thank you, Funshine.” El smiles at him before calmly walking through the warehouse, ignoring the glances of the other members spread throughout the hideout. Finally, she gets to a back room and leans through the open doorway to stare at the room’s lone occupant, a purple haired Indian girl hunched over a desk, scribbling furiously. 

“Hey, Kali.”

Kali looks up from the table. “Oh shit, you're on time,” she says, checking her watch before looking back to El. “So you want to do the trainyard today?”

“I need to keep my strength up.” 

“But last week you said you wanted to do some fighting?”

“I did say that.” El shrugs. “But let's just do the trainyard for now, and then maybe a little sparring later when I'm feeling up to it.” 

“Alright.” Kali nods and stands up from her desk, then gestures for El to follow her out a back door and into the outside. The two of them cut through various vacant lots before hopping over a final chain link fence bringing them to a seemingly abandoned trainyard.

El has been practicing with Kali for eight months. She found out about the gang’s existence due to their numerous run-ins with the Chicago PD. So one day, using her father's police contacts, she was able to find their warehouse and cut Kali a deal. She would pay Kali in exchange for training, as El had no idea how to handle her own powers. Even though Kali’s powers are completely different, with hers dealing with Illusions, manipulations, and hallucinations rather than El’s pure telekinesis, Kali has been a tremendous help. Also, her powers make sure no one can see these secret training sessions. 

“First thing’s first,” Kali says, an unlit cigarette perched on her lips. “Let’s do twenty second lifts.” She finishes by reaching in her pocket to fish a lighter out.

“Any preference on weight?” El asks as she eyes the various broken down freight cars spread throughout the yard. 

“How about that one?” Kali points to a boxcar that used to be red, but instead, rust now covers it like a disease. 

El nods and begins to prepare her mind and body to use her gifts. Normally, if the object is light enough, El doesn’t need to focus as much, as she can do easier tasks almost instantly. She needs to build up more energy to manipulate heavier objects like cars and trains.

Taking deep breaths through her nose and out of her mouth, El begins to focus on the train car sitting eighteen feet in front of her. She reaches her hands out, which helps her channel her ability, and feels what she can best describe as invisible hands extend out from her body and encompass the car. It starts to lift gently off the ground, a few inches at first. 

El groans with the strain on her body. “Oh wow, this one is a little heavier.”

“How much do you think?” Kali asks, expelling a cloud of smoke.

“How much was the one a couple weeks ago?”

“I think that one was twenty tons.”

“This one is probably closer to thirty,” El squeaks out as the car lifts higher and higher. 

Within fifteen seconds, the entire boxcar car is floating three feet above the ground and El hears Kali begin to countdown loudly from twenty. El focuses on keeping it up in the air, but once Kali hits zero, she lowers the car back to Earth. The car hits the ground with a thud that rattles the trainyard.

“Alight!” Kali smiles. “That was one. Let's do five more, then we'll move on to throwing accuracy.” 

“Okay.” El shakes her limbs out in an attempt to relax and reorient her body, before resuming her previous position and staring at the boxcar in front of her. 

El’s powers—or Gifts—work in two ways. There's what Kali calls the active side. This is the side that involves El affecting external items, like picking up objects, throwing said objects, and even in one case, using her powers to lift her own feet so that she can briefly fly. El has done this hundreds upon thousands of times to objects of all shapes and sizes, but recently Kali has been incorporating what she calls the passive side of El’s powers into her training. The passive side started as an accident. One day, about three months ago, Kali told El: “Focus your power inward. Put the hands inside your body. Don’t focus on an object. Focus on yourself.” What they found was rather interesting. By focusing her power inward, El gains extra worldly abilities. The telekinetic energy that flows through her body strengthens her bones, enhances her muscles, and even quickens her reflexes. Also, it doesn't take as much energy to use as her active side, allowing El something to use when she’s worn out or overworked. 

“Alright! Awesome job, El.” Kali beams, clapping her hands together as El launches the final piece of rebar into the target. “Let's work on passive.”

“Sounds good,” El sighs. Her body still aches from the hour of intense training that consisted of lifting objects and hurling those objects into concrete targets.

Kali allows El to place her arm around Kali’s shoulders and rest briefly against her before asking, “Do you want to go against me or do you want to go against Axel?”

“Axel put some hard hits on me.” El groans, reliving the memory of Axel’s fists flying at her face. “So I guess I’m fighting you.”

“Okay.” Kali chuckles. “He’s going to be happy not to fight you for a change.”

“He better be happy, considering that I almost broke his nose last time.”

“Yeah, but you did break Dottie’s.” 

El cringes, sucking air through her teeth. “How is she?”

“She’s okay,” Kali says. “It was lucky we managed to get her to a Healer”. 

“I’m really sorry for that.”

“Yeah, she knows.” Kali smiles. “She’s been through worse.” 

The two of them retrace their steps back to the warehouse and enter through one of the side doors and back out into the open main space in the warehouse.

“Axel,” Kali shouts, staring at the large man with a mohawk currently playing cards with Funshine. “We need you for timekeeping.” 

“Really?” he asks. Kali silently nods in response while taking off her leather jacket and placing it on a nearby chair. “Alright,” he groans, pulling out his phone. Kali begins to prepare her body, rolling her shoulders and cracking her joints.

Axel eyes the two of them, El rolling up her sleeves and Kali putting on hand wraps, before shouting, ”Are you ready?” 

“Give me a few seconds,” El says as she begins to focus her ability. The breathing exercises to get into the passive side are not unlike the one she uses for the active side. However, when she feels the invisible hands once again, instead of them shooting out to grab objects, they cradle her as one would cradle a child. They wrap around every body part like a blanket. She feels the energy flow through her.

“Let's go,” El says, ready for anything. 

With one final deep breath, Kali closes the gap between them, sprinting toward El with her fists up in a fighting stance. El quickly adopts her own stance as Kali finally reaches her. Kali begins to swing, throwing wild hooks and haymakers. El manages to dodge each one of them before finally landing her own counter blow, a solid connection into Kali's side, her fist colliding with Kali’s ribs. Kali absorbs it and retaliates with her own strike, this one catching El right on her jaw. El buckles back in pain, before restancing and continuing to spar. 

El knows how to fight. When you're the daughter of the police chief, that's something you learn early and something you learn quickly. El has lost count of how many self-defense lessons she's been through or how many times she's had to defend herself against random thugs on the streets of New York City. Even though Hopper taught El how to fight, Kali taught El how to scrap. Kali’s lessons included how to fight dirty, how to use your environment, and how to use anything you can get your hands on as a weapon. Hopper may have taught El how to fight with fists but Kali taught her how to fight with knives and both of those have become invaluable skills. 

Kali and El go at it for five minutes, with each one of them gaining the advantage and landing blows that would knock out lesser people: El catching Kali on the temple and nose with punishing elbows, Kali landing her own swift kicks to El’s sides and legs. Finally, with one last kick to Kali's chest that sends her flying backward and onto the ground, Axel’s voice interrupts the fight.

“STOP!” 

El freezes, her chest moving up and down as she takes heavy breaths. As the adrenaline from the fight leaves her, she can feel her breathing start to slow.

_Probably going to have bruises for a couple days._

“You guys did great,” Axel says.

“Yeah, I know.” Kali wipes the blood off the corner of her mouth and nose with the back of her hand, staining the already dingy hand wrap.

“That felt good,” El sighs as she walks towards Kali and reaches out a hand to help her up off the floor.

Kali grabs El’s hand and rises to her feet. “Can you go back to active now?”

“Just give me a couple seconds.” El steps away from Kali and closes her eyes. She releases her breath, and slowly but surely, feels the invisible hands go back into her, before finally she's completely powered down. Almost instantly, the pain of the sparring session slams into her. She nearly collapses to the ground but she's able to keep her breathing steady. The pain begins to ebb away.

“I have to talk to you,” Kali calls out. When El looks up at her, she’s pointing to her back office.

“Okay.” El swallows, rising to her feet before walking into the office with Kali trailing right behind her. Once the office door closes, Kali begins. 

“Listen, I have no idea what your problem is with the Black Tie Crew, but they've been keeping it pretty silent recently.” Kali takes her place on the other side of her desk. “I've been trying to figure out who their launderer is, and I may be getting somewhere, but as of right now I have nothing.” She pauses briefly, leaving El’s breathing the only sound in the room. “But if we're going to continue this...” Kali gestures to the space between them “...new aspect of our relationship, I’m going to have to ask you why. Why do you want these guys so badly? They're not even the worst criminals in this city.” 

El gulps hard. She knew, ever since she walked in four weeks ago demanding answers to who the hell the Black Tie Crew was, that Kali was going to eventually ask. Once Kali managed to reassure El that she had no connection to them, El proposed a new deal: Kali would give her info on the Black Tie Crew. El takes one last breath before answering. “I want them because they’ve terrorized the city for too long, and I’m tired of standing by and watching them get away. Plus, my gifts have been getting better. So, why not use them?” 

“I understand where you're coming from.” Kali nods and purses her lips together before continuing. “I mean, when we all discovered we had these gifts, it was either become a vigilante or become a criminal, and I never pegged you for the criminal type. So eventually, I knew you were going to become a vigilante. But listen, El. From what I've heard, these guys are pretty serious.” 

“What do you mean by serious?”

“We don’t know the exact makeup of the team,” Kali says. “But we know one of them is telekinetic. And I’m going to be blunt with you. He’s just as strong, if not stronger, than you. You know how it took you a couple seconds to lift that train car today?”

El nods.

“He can manipulate bank vault doors that weigh just as much in less time. During one of their robberies, after the safety measures on the door activated that basically disabled it, he instead ripped the twenty-five ton door off its hinges as easily as anyone else could pick up a chair. As for the others, I can gather that one is a heavy. He's really strong.”

“Like super strength?” El asks.

“He's probably closer to...” Kali pauses to find the right words before spouting, “Do you watch the Marvel movies?”

“Yes.”

“He's closer to Captain America.” Noting El’s confused expression, Kali begins to explain. “He can run _very_ fast, jump _very_ high, and fight _very_ well. He’s also _very_ strong. As for the other two, I don't have information about them.” Kali shifts in her chair, moving closer, and locks eyes with El. “El, you've been training for quite some time now and I don't know if you're ready, but if you really want to go after these people, I will help you.” Kali’s face suddenly turns dark as her brow becomes heavy and a scowl forms on her lips “Just know that if you get caught, we don't know each other.” 

El just nods.


	6. Date Night and a Death Threat

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took a while but we finally get some fluff in this chapter.

**_Thursday July 11th_ **

Mike has an extra pep in his step as he walks to the nearby liquor store.

_Today is the day that I take one of the most beautiful girls on this planet out on a date. I'm going to wine and dine the fuck out of her and it's going to be fantastic._

His beaming smile shows everyone how he feels, and he truly believes nothing can go wrong today. That feeling lasts only until he turns down an alleyway, hoping to take a quick shortcut to the store, when suddenly a blonde woman and a dark haired man dressed in charcoal grey suits cut him off at the end of it. Mike knows exactly who these two are. He can pick them out from a mile away: DGA agents, America's own police force for monitoring and protecting the gifted. He knows if there are two agents in front of him, that means _He_ has to be close by.

“Michael,” a calm voice echoes from behind him.

_Only two people in this world call me Michael, and that sure as shit ain't my mother's voice._

“Brenner,” Mike spits out, venom dripping from the name. He turns around, placing his back to the two agents. Sure enough, standing a couple feet away from him, is the man known as Dr. Martin Brenner.

Dr. Brenner has been in charge of the Chicago DGA office since its formation. From what Mike has heard and seen, he is a ruthless man, willing to sacrifice anyone and anything to get what he wants in the world. The bone chilling thing is that no one knows what he truly wants. He marches to his own beat and will throw you under the train tracks just as quickly as someone would take a sip of water. The Black Tie Crew met him four years ago when he was assigned to investigate their first bank robbery in Chicago. It was a dark alley behind a TD Bank where Dustin struck a deal that would change all five of their lives. In exchange for a percentage of every heist, Brenner would cover up their crimes, keep their identities a secret, and make sure that as far as the DGA is concerned, there are no Gifted from Hawkins. For the most part, Brenner has kept his end of the deal. That was until about a year ago, when Brenner started getting more demanding, and hinting that he was willing to sever the deal at any moment, regardless of circumstances. Of course the boys always had a back-up plan. They knew exactly where his office was, where he slept, and how many bullets to the head it would take to kill him. He's the reason they've robbed four banks in the past seven months, and he's the reason some of them keep their relationships secret. Dr. Brenner is a man of pure evil.

“How are you doing today, Michael?” Brenner whispers, just like a trusted psychologist would, although he's anything but trustworthy. He's a snake in a navy blue suit, just waiting for you to mess up so that he can devour you whole. 

“I'm doing great,” Mike deadpans. “Thanks for asking.”

“That’s good.” Brenner smiles, his lips sliding back like a knife wound. “Dustin already told me what you four are doing tomorrow and might I say, I'm very excited to see how it goes.”

“Are you, now?” Mike doesn’t hide his sarcastic tone. “Don't you just want to get paid?”

“No, I’m excited because you are about to rob the Benevolent Bank. And when word gets out that four Gifteds are the ones behind it...” Brenner pauses to glance at his watch. “...well, that's going to be a lot of work on my hands, Mr. Wheeler.”

“I thought your end of the deal was keeping your mouth shut and staying out of what we do.”

“Oh I will, Michael.'' Brenner’s smile creeps back onto his face. “Remember, you trust me, and I trust you.”

Mike shivers Brenner’s last statement.

_That couldn't be any further from the truth._

“But I'm just a little worried,” Brenner continues. “So I'm going to deliver this message to you right now. Don't worry, the other boys know, too.” He pauses and steps in, closing the gap between him and Mike. It places him only inches from Mike’s face, his cold gray eyes staring into Mike's soul. “If this goes south in any way, our deal is over.” He steps back. “Now you must be thinking, what does that mean? Well, you're going to have to explain to your lovely sister and Will’s brother that you're a criminal. You're going to be arrested or, if you manage to avoid that, you're going to be tracked to the ends of the Earth for all those things you've done. I think your new girlfriend's father will take great joy in placing the cuffs on you himself.”

Mike’s body stiffens at the mention of El. “How do you know about her?” he growls.

“I talk to people.” Brenner chuckles, then pauses to clear his throat and continues. “You're doing good for yourself, Michael.” He begins to turn around before meeting Mike’s eyes for one last time. “Take care, and remember, I am willing to make house calls.”

Brenner disappears down the alleyway with the two others, leaving Mike standing there alone. He feels like he just got drenched with cold water. This isn't the first time Brenner has vaguely threatened the people in his life, and judging from what he's heard from others, this isn't going to be the last time. Mike simply swallows these feelings down and moves on.  


* * *

  
“Make sure your underwear matches your bra!” Max screams from the living room as El stands in front of her closet, trying to decide what to wear for the night.

“Max! I told you already I don't plan on sleeping with him tonight!” El shouts back, having just finished partially drying her hair.

“I said the same thing for my first official date with Lucas,” Max says, “and look where that ended up. The backseat of his car was very cramped, but it was worth it.”

“For the last time, I do not want to hear about you and Lucas’ sex life.” El groans and drops her head into her hands.

She hears shuffling from the living room before Max appears in the doorway of her room. “Do you really need help deciding what to wear again?’ 

“I don't know,” El says, her head still in her hands. “I don't want to go too fancy because Mike said the restaurant is fancy but not _fancy fancy.”_

“What the fuck does that mean?”

“I don't know!” El raises her head. “But he said to dress nicely.”

“Well, it is Mike.” Max giggles. “Knowing him, nice could just be a pair of jeans and a t-shirt.”

El looks at Max with a picture-perfect deadpan. “I am not going to wear that.” 

“How about a jumpsuit?” Max asks as she joins El in front of the closet. “Don’t you have that black one that looks kinda like a tux?”

“I mean, I do. But it’s supposed to be like 80 tonight.”

“Actually, I just checked the weather. It's probably closer to 60.” 

“But still I don't want to be sweaty!” El groans. “I mean, I'm already going to be nervous. I don't want to be sweating on top of that.”

“Fair point.” Max shrugs, stepping forward and shifting clothes around in the closet. Suddenly, she stops and pulls out a pink strapless dress. “What about this?”

“Oh.” El scans over the item. “I didn't even know I had this.”

“I didn't even know you had this, either.” Max laughs. “When the fuck did you get this?” 

“I don't know.” El takes the dress into her hands, feeling the material glide through her fingers. “But it’s perfect.” 

“Put it on!” Max says. “Let's see how it looks on you.”

El gently slides into the dress before turning to Max. “Can you get the zipper?”

She feels Max's hand quickly grab the zipper and zip it up. “Damn, girl!” Max exclaims, grabbing El by the shoulders and turning her to face the full size mirror in the corner of the room.

“It's beautiful,” El breathes out, almost speechless at herself in the mirror.

“I was going to say Mike is going to lose his shit,” Max says. “But yeah, that pretty much sums it up. Now let's get your hair and makeup done.”

El and Max fall into their familiar pre-date routine of hair and makeup. However this time, as opposed to the more subdued looks Max has done for El in the past, she decides to go all out—matching El’s dress with a vibrant eyeshadow, her cheeks blooming with blush, and mascara that frames her eyes perfectly. El does her own hair, letting it fall down in a beautiful rippling fall of chestnut curls.

By the end of the process, Max is in awe. “I know I'm dating Lucas, but holy FUCK, you look good.” 

El just stares at herself in the mirror, taking in the finished effect. “Hey, Max?” she says quietly, her heart still leaping around in a ball of nerves.

“Yeah?”

“I’ve probably said this like 80,000 times,” El begins. “But thank you.”

“For what? The makeup?”

“No.”

“Your hair?”

“No.” El sighs. “For Mike.”

“Why?”

“I don't know what I would have done if you didn't set me up with him.”

“I know what you would have don—” Max interjects with a toothy grin, clearly setting up a joke.

“If you're about to dunk on me, please don't.” El cuts her off with a smile, before gathering her racing thoughts and continuing. “I probably would have kept imagining what the world could be like, without actually trying to live in it.” El pauses to turn and look Max in the eyes. “As much as I didn't like you setting me up with people, I'm kind of happy you did this time.”

Caught off guard by the tenderness of the moment, Max has to take a moment to respond. She clears her throat and says, “You're a good friend. If anyone deserves to be happy it's you.” El and Max look at each other for a beat, before El brings her arms up and pulls Max in close for a tight hug. Even though they have only been roommates for about two years, their friendship has grown significantly and become full of midnight conversations and shared tears.

“Now what time did Mike say he was coming?” Max asks as the two break the embrace.

El quickly reaches in her purse and grabs her phone. “OH SHIT! 5:53!” she exclaims, looking at the time. “He’s going to be here soon!”

“Well, don’t freak out,” Max says. “Or your makeup will slide right off your face, and I’m not about to reapply it.”

“I’m CALM!” El screams as she conducts one final check around the apartment. She exhales deeply as her body begins to relax. “Okay, I think I have everything I need.” 

“What are you guys even doing tonight?” Max plops down on the couch. “I know your debit card has been acting up lately, so there’s no way in hell you’re paying for anything tonight.”

“A fancy dinner!” El smiles. “Afterwards, he kept it vague but he said we’re going to do something back at his building.”

“He wants to plow you,” Max states matter-of-factly.

El blushes. The thought of that has definitely crossed her mind. “He meant like, instead of just plain old dinner and a movie, he wants to try something else for a change.”

“You're not convincing me that he's not going to try to fuck you.”

“Oh my God.” For the second time tonight, El buries her head in her hands. “He just said he wants it to be a surprise.”

“Yeah.” Max laughs. “His dick is probably the surprise.” 

“Quiet, you. It's going to be fine. Anyway, even if I do have sex with him, that's none of your business.”

“Fair point,” Max says, throwing her hands up in mock surrender.

El’s phone vibrates. She quickly glances down at it.

_**I'm here.** _

“He's here, Max!” El beams as she all but runs to the front door. “I'll see you later!”

“Okay!” Max smiles as she waves El goodbye. “And El, it's going to be great. I’ll see you if—or _when_ —you get home.”

With final deep breath, El walks out of her apartment and begins her journey down the stairs to meet Mike. She sprints through the lobby of her building before bursting through the front door, then quickly runs to the curb and begins to scan her surroundings looking for her paramour. Finally she spots in him and—

_Oh.  
My.  
God._

El’s lungs are already winded from her run through the lobby, but any breath left inside of her completely leaves her body at the sight of Mike. He’s leaning up against a white Mustang, checking his phone. He's wearing a blue suit with black lapels that is tailored perfectly to his body, showing off the width of his shoulders and length of his legs. Layered underneath his jacket is a midnight black shirt with a skinny white tie. His black shoes look freshly polished and glimmer in the evening sunlight. A pair of round sunglasses with silver wire frames add to the boyish charm of his face as his black hair spirals out of control. 

El nearly passes out upon seeing him. She looks back up at his face and sees that it’s stretched into a wide smile at her presence. However, she also notices the corners of his cheeks wavering from nervousness.

_Why are you nervous? You’re the most handsome man on the planet._

“Hi, Mike,” El whispers breathlessly, walking up to him as her emotions finally come back from their soaring .

“Hey, El,” he whispers back, just as breathless. 

“You look amazing.”

“So do you.”

The two of them stare at each other, taking in each other’s presence, before Mike breaks the silence.

“Hop in, Hopper.” Mike smiles, gesturing to the car. A small giggle escapes from El’s lips as she continues to stare at him, unable to believe just how pretty he is. He quickly runs up to the passenger side door and opens it for her, allowing her to step inside, before walking to the driver’s side and getting in the car himself. 

“Are you ready?” Mike says gently, producing his keys from his pocket and turning on the car. 

“Yes.” El smiles back.

_I’m ready for anything._  


* * *

  
Mike regrets choosing to wear a suit tonight. He bought this one a couple months ago in New York, while he was visiting Nancy. On a whim, he decided to go to a bespoke tailor in the fashion district and get himself a new suit that doesn't have layers of body armor and secret communicators built into it. He wasn’t expecting to wear it, except for maybe Lucas and Max's wedding, but that’s probably years away. Truth be told, he doesn't even know why he's wearing it tonight, as his anxious monologue runs roughshod through his mind.

_What if it’s too much? What if it's too gaudy? What if she thinks that I'm just trying to compensate for something?_

If he thinks the suit is too gaudy, he also doesn't like the choice of transportation he picked for tonight. It was one of the first purchases he made after the boys’ first heist in Chicago. At the time, when he was 22, it seemed like a great idea—get a fast car for driving and impressing people, but little did he realize that he lived in Chicago, meaning long winters and everything in walking distance. So instead, Mike’s prized white Mustang sat mostly unused in a technologically locked garage, courtesy of Dustin. He still drives it occasionally, though, taking it out to a nearby abandoned airfield where he’s bribed some of the guards to let him drive rampant on the abandoned runways.

_Maybe I could take El on a date there._

His mind quickly moves from his own appearance to the girl he is patiently awaiting. He feels like he knows so much yet so little about her. He knows what her favorite movie is: the Princess Bride. Her favorite food: Eggos. How she likes her coffee: not at all, instead preferring tea with honey. However, he doesn't know anything about her family. It's not that he wants to know every single detail, but El is quite tight-lipped when it comes to certain aspects of her previous life.

_Maybe she had a rough childhood._

With one final deep breath, Mike manages to quell his thoughts and instead pulls out his phone to scroll through his Twitter feed as he waits for El. Halfway through reading a tweet about the new Star Wars movie, he feels someone staring at him. However, it's not an unwanted presence. It warms every ounce of his body.

_That has to be her. El._

He shifts his eyes up from his phone and spots her standing in front of her apartment building and—

_Wow._

His skin suddenly feels two sizes too tight as his heart explodes at the sight of her. A shaky smile forms on his lips, as his eyes simply can’t comprehend that a human being can look this amazing. She's standing on the curb, beaming at him with a smile that the sun would be jealous of. Her makeup is artfully applied, with a light pink eyeshadow and dark mascara framing the gold pools of her eyes. A matching lipstick draws him to her slightly parted lips, and he wants to kiss her right then and there. His eyes move from her face to the rest of her as he takes in her outfit for the night. She is wearing a pink strapless dress that clings to the curves of her upper body, showing off her svelte figure before flaring out slightly at her hips and terminating at mid thigh, allowing her beautiful legs to captivate every ounce of Mike’ attention. On her feet is a pair of low heels that are added to her small stature. She quickly walks toward Mike, looking both ways as she crosses the street and stops in front of him. As she nears, Mike becomes painfully aware of just how pretty she is.

_Fuck pretty. She’s beautiful._

“Hi, Mike,” she whispers, snapping him back into reality

“Hey, El,” he whispers back, his lungs betraying him.

“You look amazing.” El smiles as her eyes scan over his suit

“So do you,” Mike replies, replacing his nervous grin with a more confident one.

Their eyes meet as the two drink in the other’s intoxicating presence.

Finally, Mike breaks the moment by gesturing to the car. “Hop in, Hopper,” he jokes, hearing a quick giggle from El. He turns to the passenger side door and opens it for her, allowing her to step inside. As she does, Mike notices the sharp height difference between them, which causes his grin to expand slightly. He takes a couple deep breaths before walking over to the driver’s side and gets in the car.

“Are you ready?” he says gently, fishing the keys from his pocket and turning on the car. 

“Yes.” El smiles back, sending another wave of emotion through Mike.

A content silence fills the car as Mike begins to pull away from the curb and towards the restaurant.

A few minutes into the ride, El blurts out, “So what are we doing back at your building after dinner?” 

“I told you, it's a surprise.” Mike smiles, thinking about all the effort he put into the second part of the date. He spent hours cleaning, prepping, and making sure that everything was in the perfect place back at his building. “Why do you ask?”

“Max was bugging me about it,” El answers, her tone filled with mock exhaustion. 

“Really?” Mike chuckles. From what he has heard from both Max and El, their friendship is just as close as the boys’. “What did she say?”

“She thinks that you have less than pure intentions.” El smiles, her tone mildly suggestive. As Mike glances over, he notices that her normal cute smile is replaced with a smirk that has a touch of something darker behind it.

“Well, she should know that I'm a saint,” Mike jokes, adding a little suggestion in his own voice.

“Are you now?”

_Two can play at this game._

“You'll just have to find out.” Mike smirks back as he finally pulls the car into the restaurant parking lot. 

As Mike pulls the car up to the valet parking stand, the content silence that filled the car on the drive to the restaurant shifts into the unmistakable feeling of tension; not negative tension, but instead the tension of wanting the other. Mike looks over at El as she meets his gaze with equal fervor. Mike is almost tempted to lean over the center console right now and place a kiss right on her lips, but he doesn't know if she's ready or willing. Instead, he decides to throw her a wink as he gets out of the car to hand his keys to the valet. Once the keys are given, Mike turns back to the car and opens the door, allowing El to step out and join him for the wining and dining he has been dreaming of. 

_And hopefully something more._  


* * *

  
“I can't believe you know so much French,” Mike says, laughing, as the two of them walk back towards the valet stand, El clinging onto his arm while he smiles down at her.

The date was incredible. El managed to flex some of her linguistic talents by ordering her food in French, something that she sometimes does to annoy her father. From there the conversation flowed into the two of them sharing their own college experiences. El told him about her Psychology major, how it helped her secure her job as a guidance counselor, the funny people she met along the way, the nightmarish professors she had, and everything in between. Mike rambled on about his own biomedical degree, and how he tried to work in biomed at first and ended up hating it. She learned so much about what inspired his novels, what went into them, and how even though his family may not like that he's a freelance writer, they accept it. Obviously, they haven't got into the darker areas of their lives yet. Mike had hinted at events in his past, and El is kind of iffy about telling him her own troubled backstory. However, she feels they’re heading there. She’s hoping that one day everything between them will be shared, and that makes her happy. Before, she was scared of letting someone into her heart, but with all the time she's spent interacting with Mike, even though it's only been about a month, she feels like he may not be perfect but he's perfect for her.

“I had to take it as part of my Psychology major,” El says, a proud grin gracing her face. “I was required to take a language and I actually kind of enjoyed it. So I ended up taking it as a minor.” They reach the valet stand and Mike signals for his car before El continues, “What about you? Did you have a language requirement?”

“I managed to get it waived,” Mike says as the valet leaves to get his car. “I'm not really a language person…” He trails off before animatedly adding, “Dustin is, though.”

“Really?” El asks. “He’s the one with the curly hair, right?”

“Yeah,”” Mike says as his Mustang pulls up next to the pair “You've met him before.” 

El smiles, remembering the toothy and loud Dustin as he went on his fifth rant about the Hobbit of the evening. “Yeah,” she says. “He was at the Fourth of July thing.” The valet steps out of the car and tosses the keys to Mike as El asks, “How did he learn all of them?”

Mike shrugs as he unlocks and opens El’s door. “He’s just the kind of guy that doesn't like being idle, so even when he's not working, he likes to keep his hands busy. I have all these little gadgets around my apartment because he got bored one day and started building stuff for me.” He pauses to close El’s door behind her and walks around the car to get in the driver’s seat. “When he moved to Chicago after college, he started having more time off, so he decided to start learning languages. He picked up Spanish, then French and German, then Russian and Chinese. He's actually really good at it.” Mike finishes in awe for his friend, his voice bright with pride.

El smiles, matching Mike’s expression before she turns her attention to another one of Lucas and Mike’s friends, the quiet one with light brown hair and perpetually forlorn expression. “Tell me about Will. He seems to be the quiet one of the group and I’m wondering how you three loudmouths found him.”

“Oh, Will.” Mike chuckles. “We were friends even before I met Dustin and Lucas all the way back in third and fourth grade. What do you want to know about him?” 

“Just how you two became friends.” El likes hearing about Mike’s past, especially his friendships, as she can tell he cares a lot about the people close to him. Plus he gets adorably animated when he reminisces about his social history. 

“We met when we were six.” A smile spreads across Mike’s face as he begins. “We were both in kindergarten and I was nervous during my first ever recess.” El giggles at the image of a tiny Mike walking skittishly around the playground. “So I saw him sitting on the swings and I kind of threw caution to the wind and said hi to him. We started talking and I found out he was interested in fantasy, dragons, and a bunch of other stuff that I also liked. I guess we clicked. Once Dustin and Lucas moved to Hawkins, the four of us found each other and started playing Dungeons & Dragons together.”

“DnD.” El laughs. “Max told me about how you guys made a special class for her.”

“She really wanted to be a Zoomer.”

“What does that even mean?” 

“No idea.” Mike shrugs. “But I just made her a really fast rogue.” 

“Nice!”

“So,” Mike asks, “how did you meet Max? I know you guys are roommates, but there has to be more to the story.” 

“Well, I just needed a roommate two years ago, so I found Max online. I met her and kinda liked her so I moved into her apartment and, just like you and Will, we clicked. She is a very interesting roommate, though.”

“Really?”

“Yeah,” El says. “I mean, she's loud and blunt as hell most of the time. Plus trying to sneak anything by her is a death wish.” El sighs before continuing. “But she cleans up after herself and she’s really nice, so there’s really nothing more I can ask of her.”

“That loudness scared off four previous roommates.”

“How long have you known Max?” El asks. She knows Lucas and Max have been dating for years now, meaning Mike must have known her for at least that long. 

“I met her after she started dating Lucas, so about four years?” Mike pauses, trying to remember. “Yeah, they met on Tinder, and you know the rest.”

“Trust me, I know the rest.” El rolls her eyes. “When Max gets a little too drunk, she’ll wax poetic about her entire relationship with Lucas. I probably know more about their relationship than Lucas does.”

Mike chuckles gently at her joke as he pulls into the entrance to a large apartment building. 

“I take it this is your building,” El says as she cranes her neck to take in the height of it. It's one of the newer apartment buildings that were constructed a couple years ago.

“Yeah.” Mike pulls his car in a garage labeled _Wheeler,_ with a smug smile on his face.

“Still not going to tell me what we're doing?” El teases.

“I told you, it's a surprise.” Mike grins before booping El on the nose with his index finger. In response, El just scrunches her nose.

“This is a really nice apartment building,” El says as Mike closes the garage door behind them and they walk toward the back entrance.

“Once my books took off, I was able to get a little nicer of a place.” Mike leads El through the lobby toward a bank of elevators. “You should’ve seen my first one. That was the definition of shithole.” 

“Trust me, I know. When I used to live in New York City with my dad, our first apartment had roaches.” El cringes, joining Mike in front of an elevator and hitting the elevator button. “What floor?” She asks as they step inside.

“You’ll see.'' Mike smirks before hitting the button for the top floor.

“You live in the penthouse?” El cocks an eyebrow as the elevator begins to rise.  
“Not quite.” Mike reaches into his pocket and produces a blue handkerchief. “Give me a moment,” he says, folding it into a long strip. “Blindfold yourself.”

“You _are_ aware that my dad is the chief of police,” El says that she accepts the blindfold.

“I'm not going to kidnap you!” Mike laughs lightly. “Trust me, if we were to have a fight, you would probably win.”

El just giggles as she places the fabric over her eyes. Once she enters the darkness, her thoughts began to spin wildly.

_Why is he taking me to the roof? I mean, it's only eight, so the sun hasn't set yet. I wonder what it’s going to look like from up there. Is there a garden up there?_

As El feels the elevator climb higher, both her excitement and worry climb as well. Finally, the elevator comes to a jarring stop and the doors loudly slide open. Mike gently takes El’s hand and leads her out of the elevator, all while El tries to ignore how much her body sings at the feeling of his hand in hers. Suddenly, they stop. Mike releases her hand, and she hears things rattling before finally a door swings open. He leads her up a flight of stairs that are made of concrete, judging by how her heels click against them.

With one last door opening, El feels the fresh air of the night and she knows she must be on the roof.

“Okay,” Mike says. El can hear him moving items around before finally exhaling one last deep breath. “You can look now.”

El’s eyes adjust to the setting sun as everything on the roof comes into focus. The roof of the building is clean, with any trace of the elements swept away. In the center of it simply sits a table covered in a checkered tablecloth and two chairs, and set gently upon the table with a bright orange extension cord falling from it, a single toaster with a box of Homestyle Eggos next to it.

“Mike!” El breathes out gently, unable to comprehend what’s in front of her.

“It took me a while to set this up, actually.” Mike chuckles nervously. “I called up Max to double-check that you actually did like Eggos.”

El just nods as she takes in the view of Chicago.

“So I figured why not watch the sunset, eat some Eggos, and talk about dumb shit?”

El is speechless and breathless. The second those words leave his mouth, that's all she wants to do with him, thoughts of Max's sexually-charged jokes pushed aside. She just wants to be with him. 

“Have a seat,” Mike says, pulling out one of the chairs so that El can sit down. He joins her on the other side of the table, his hands fiddling with the cardboard of the Eggo box. “You know I've been an adult for eight years now,” he says, twisting and turning the waffle box, “and I still can’t open a box without making it look like a turtle fucked it.” 

Mike's joke rapidly pulls El out of her soaring head space as she begins to laugh hard, her body shaking. “What?!”

“See?” he says, holding up the slightly destroyed box. After a quick giggle from the two of them, he gently opens the plastic, slides two out, and places them into the toaster. Then, with a smile and a wink, he presses the button, beginning the toasting process. He pauses briefly to look over everything before speaking. “This is why I wanted to have dinner at six. I knew the sun was supposed to set at...” He checks his watch. “8:30. So why not watch the sunset?” 

The toaster suddenly pops, bringing both of their attention to the warm waffles waiting. They sit there quietly munching on them as the sky changes into its vibrant pinks and oranges. El smiles in between bites as content silence washes over her. Nothing else in the world seems to matter at this moment. Not her job, not her Gifts—hell, not even her vigilante quest to find the Black Tie Crew. None of it matters as, right now, she's sitting on a rooftop in downtown Chicago eating a warm waffle, with a man that, with every passing day, she can imagine spending the rest of her life with.

Mike breaks the silence as he reaches for another waffle. “Why do you like Eggos?” 

El gulps hard, her expression dropping.

_If there's any time to tell him at least some of my past, now is the right moment._

“My dad used to make them for me,” she says quietly.

Mike smiles. “Why would the police chief like Eggos?”

“No.” El swallows hard as the memories and pain begin to come into the forefront of her mind. 

_Here it goes._

“My birth dad.”

“Oh.” Mike’s smle drops. “You're adopted.’

“Mike—” El begins before a slight sob makes her falter.

“It's okay.” Mike reaches out and places his hand on her own. “If you don't want to tell me, you don't have to—”

“No.” El cuts him off with a slight squeeze of his hand. “I want to.” Once Mike nods, El takes one final deep breath before telling her long and dark history. “I lost my parents in the New York explosion when I was eleven. Both of them were great people and one day I came home from middle school and found out they were gone. Just wiped off the face of the earth without even a single piece of them to bury. I went from having a wonderful life to none in the space of one afternoon.” She chokes up slightly before continuing. “Hopper at the time was the Deputy Police Commissioner of New York City, and he personally made sure each one of the kids that were orphaned had at least a permanent home. I was the last kid. No one was willing to take me in and most foster systems were running dry. No one wanted to adopt a twelve year old. So he took me in and gave me a warm bed and food on the table. At first I thought he was just going to treat me like a community service project, but I was wrong. He loves me just like I’m his own. And later I found out that he had a daughter before me.”

El’s pauses to clear her throat and wipe the beginnings of tears from her eyes.

“He lost her to cancer and that's why he called me his second chance.” El looks over at Mike to see tears in his eyes as well. “He took his second chance and ran with it.”

El stops and lets the tears run their course as both of them sit there silently crying. Finally, after a few minutes of Mike resting his hand on her own, El wipes away her tears and looks back at him to continue, “Eggos remind me of hazy mornings when I was six years old with my parents, and they remind me of college visits when I came home crying from finals and Hopper would be there with a mound of them covered in whipped cream and chocolate kisses.” 

“Wow.” Mike chokes up. “I’m so sorry.”

“It’s okay.” El smiles despite the rivers of tears running down her face. “I have another person to associate them with, now.” With the final utterance, El closes the distance between them and places her lips on his. As thousands of emotions surge throughout her body, she feels everything in this moment—from the chill of the almost nighttime breeze, to the last rays of the sunset, to the slightly sweet taste of toaster waffles present on both their lips.

El knows that this is a moment she's never going to forget. That is a moment that she hopes will last forever.

_The start of something new._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Follow me on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/KaliPrasad008)
> 
> Next chapter is when shit gets interesting.


	7. Lucas Hits a Wall and Shit Hits the Fan

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! 
> 
> This is the chapter where shit goes down. 
> 
> Enjoy!

**_Friday July 12th_ **

“Hey Mike, how was the date last night?” Lucas asks, while racking the bolt of his rifle and checking the sights.

“It went pretty great, actually.” Mike grins while performing similar checks on his own rifle. “I took her back to my place, we ended up on my roof and we ate some Eggos, kissed, and bared our souls for a little bit. We have another date in two weeks.” 

“Nice! Did you guys... _you know?_ ” Lucas cocks his eyebrow suggestively as he loads a magazine into his vest.

“Jesus Christ, you're just like Max!” Mike rolls his eyes, earning a laugh from Lucas. “She texted me right after I dropped El off and asked the same question.”

Lucas smirks while placing his pistol into his shoulder holster. “Well, we _are_ dating.”

“I would expect nothing less from you two lovebirds.” Mike laughs, sliding his pistol into the holster strapped to his thigh. 

Lucas laughs in turn and returns to his own heist prep, leaving Mike to follow suit in preparing his equipment. 

The mission briefing this morning wasn't too different from the one they received on Tuesday. Only a few things have changed per Dustin’s final scouting. Rather than Mike and Lucas leaving the lobby to help Dustin and Will load up the loot, Will and Dustin should be able to do it all on their own. This means less risk of civilian escape or alarm. As for weapons, they're taking their usual ones. Ideally, they wouldn't need any weapons; for as long as Mike has done robberies, he's never even shot anyone, and he’s only fired his gun five times as an intimidation tactic. Truth be told, the weapons are just in case anything goes wrong. Even then, they all abide by a strict no killing rule.

Mike and Lucas both have customized rifles built to their specifications. Lucas’ is made for long range and concealment, perfect for scouting and quick movement. Mike has a smaller compact model made for close quarters situations. Dustin is going in with his own customized pistol as well, as he doesn't like using anything else. Will goes in empty handed, because when you have the capability to level a city block with just your mind, you really don't need to carry weapons. Mission equipment has also been finalized: they’re taking a cell phone jammer to prevent any civilian contact of police, and everyone is wearing, in addition to their normal suits, thick Kevlar vests.

“All right, boys!” Dustin’s loud voice echoes across the warehouse. “How are we doing?”

“We're doing okay,” Lucas answers as he and Mike finally slip their own blazers over their bulky vests. “How's the computer stuff coming along?” 

“It's going along _great,_ ” Dustin replies, clacking away at his computer. “I already have access to their full systems. Once we actually leave, I'll have it rigged to my phone so I can turn off their security cameras, alarm systems, and stuff like that, so it’ll be smooth sailing to the vault. Speaking of the vault, I also just double-checked: the finalized take should be around 15.3 million dollars, with approximately three million in cash and twelve million in other variables such as jewels and gold.” Dustin stops to type a few more commands into his computer before adding, “Oh, by the way, code names are masks.”

Mike nods. That means that, when in the bank, they're only going to refer to each other by the designs on their masks. Mike is no longer Mike, he becomes Rose. Lucas becomes Flame, Dustin is Atom, and Will is Star.

Dustin looks up, having finished his prep, and calls out: “Will! How are you doing over there?”

“Oh, I'm doing great!” Will calls back, rifling through the gang's collection of reinforced duffel bags, made for carrying immense amounts of cash and gold. “I could use some help, though.”

“I got you,” Mike says. He places his rifle down on the table and walks over to Will. “What do you need?”

“I just need you to help me get about eight of them,” Will answers, before shouting across the warehouse, “Eight, Dustin?”

“Yeah,” Dustin answers, scanning the screen in front of him. “Eight.” 

Will nods in response, then picks up two bags and places them over his shoulder to sit across his back.

“Anyway,” Mike says, as he picks up six bags and hands them to Will. “How was the test run last night?” Mike knows Will and Dustin put in work last night to make sure Will’s gifts would be capable of cracking the vault.

“I'm pretty sure I can get this in fifteen seconds.” Will beams.

“Really?” Mike grins from ear to ear. “How much does the vault door weigh again?” 

“Close to forty tons,” Will says nonchalantly. “It's made to survive an earthquake.”

“You're going to open a forty-ton door in fifteen seconds.” Mike stares in disbelief. Even though it has been close to twelve years, Mike sometimes can’t comprehend how _strong_ Will is.

“Fuck yeah, I am,” Will says with a conviction that Mike rarely hears from him. 

Mike can’t help but smile. “That's why you're the best.”

Will smiles in response and grabs the eight bags, then heads over towards Dustin. Mike in turn walks back towards Lucas, who is putting the finishing touches on his suit and mask.

“This is coming together nicely.” Mike smiles, feeling giddy as everything falls into place. 

“Yeah,” Lucas says. “Almost too nicely.”

“Shut the fuck up, Lucas. Not everything is an omen.” Dustin stands up from the computer and slides on his own blazer. “Just be ready in ten minutes, guys. We’re about to become fifteen million dollars richer.”  


* * *

  
“Can I please have your PIN one last time?” the bank manager asks El, her fingers poised above the keys of the computer.

“Zero-three-five-three,” El recites. She's been here for an hour. What was supposed to be a quick fix for her malfunctioning debit card turned into an hour long stay at the Benevolent Bank. She thought it was going to take ten seconds, just a walk down the street wearing her lounging clothes: a pair of sneakers, the jeans that she primarily uses for cleaning, and an oversized hoodie with simply the number 11 on it. She didn't even shower.

However, things have not gone according to plan. First, the tellers couldn't do anything about her debit card. Then, when the manager came over to help her, she couldn't fix the problem using the computers in the lobby so El had to go into some office. That's where she's been sitting for the last thirty minutes, repeating her details about her life and answering security questions she never even knew she set, as the bank manager in front of her somehow seems to be lacking every skill that comes with managing a bank.

As the manager undoubtedly runs into another error, El’s thoughts drift towards last night on the roof. After she and Mike kissed for the first time, everything felt perfect. They just talked for hours until the sun was well below the horizon. The saddest part of the night was when El had to leave. She really wanted to stay the night, but she knew that she wouldn't have slept. Nonetheless, this date with Mike showed her how much she just wanted to be with him and how much she enjoys spending time with him. They’ve already scheduled another date in two weeks; however, this time El gets to plan it, and she’s taking Max up on her offer to host a skating date.

“Wait one second,” the manager says, her grim face pulling El from her thoughts. She types furiously before she picks up the phone and dials. “Hey, what are the statuses of the security cameras? … Oh.” She hangs up the phone and turns again to El. “Ms. Hopper, can I ask you a favor?”

El looks at the manager with confusion. “Yeah?”

“Can you pull out your phone for me?” 

“Sure,” El says. She reaches for her purse.

“Can you dial 911?”

El’s chest tightens. Despite all the questions she wants to ask, she obeys without wasting any time. She dials, but the call immediately drops.

“Did the call drop?” the manager asks.

El nods, speechless.

“I'm going to be very honest with you,” the manager says. Her voice begins to shake. “We're about to be robbed by the Black Tie Crew.”

_WHAT?!_

“WHAT?!” El cries.

“Stay in the office for now. I'll be right back.” The bank manager quickly closes the blinds in the office and runs out into the lobby, slamming the door shut behind her.

All El can do is sit there in shock.

_The Black Tie Crew! Oh My God!_

Suddenly she hears it, a loud voice echoing across the lobby of the bank:

“Do not move! Do not panic! Do not run! Or we _will_ kill you.” 

El throws herself to the ground and crawls over the door.

“Me and my friends here are only going to take everything this bank has. That does _not_ include your life, so don't do anything stupid. Okay. Atom, Star, you're up.” 

El climbs to her feet and peeks through the blinds covering the door. The scene she sees is chaotic yet orderly, with everyone on the ground, their arms behind their heads, as the tellers come out with their hands up from behind the desks. Two men in black suits run towards one of the doors located behind the teller area and disappear before El can even catch a glimpse of their masks or appearances. The other two are standing in the lobby with rifles slung across their chests, one with wild black hair spilling out from behind a skull mask patterned with roses, the other slightly shorter with darker skin and cropped black hair. The shorter man’s mask is the same design of a skull, but with a pattern of flames licking across his cheeks.

 _I have to stop them. But what if I don't stop them. Oh God, I need to hide my face._

El looks around the office for anything she can use to cover her face. She drops to the floor again and crawls to her purse, where she pulls out the plain blue handkerchief Mike gave her last night to blindfold her.

_Alright. This will do._

El breathes, feeling the invisible hands beginning to reach out as she folds the handkerchief into a triangle. With one final deep breath, she ties it around her nose and mouth.

_Here goes nothing._  


* * *

  
Mike swallows nervously. Dustin and Will have been at the vault for two minutes now, and even though Mike wants to ask what’s wrong, he was told by Dustin not to panic. Instead, Mike glances around the room, making sure everyone is still on the ground and that no one's reaching for anything. He doesn't have to worry about cops, as everyone's cell phone was knocked out a full two minutes before they walked in the door. But unfortunately, being so prepared leaves Mike with nothing to do but wait 

“Hey Flame, you good?” Mike calls out to Lucas as he walks toward him at the front of the bank lobby.

“Yeah Rose, just bored.” Lucas chuckles, his voice slightly muffled by the mask. “How long are they going to take?”

“Beats me.” Mike shrugs, even though both of them know the answer and are just making conversation to pass the time. 

“It’s kind of bullshit we’re on babysitting duty again.” Lucas gestures to the civilians lying across the floor of the bank, still in shell-shocked fear. 

“Got that right,” Mike says. He falls silent when, suddenly, he hears a door open. 

_That’s odd. There's no one else who can possibly be in the bank._

Mike ignores it, instead speaking into the microphone on his lapel. “Atom, everything good?”

Dustin's voice echoes back over the earpiece. “Everything’s okay. It's just that there's a lot more than we anticipated.”

“Really?” Mike asks. “How much more?”

“Maybe we're looking at close to...” Dustin pauses, quickly calculating in his mind. “Probably maybe close to five million more.”

“Bullshit!” Mike shouts, earning jumps from the nearby civilians.

“I don't lie,” Dustin answers back. “Just give us a couple more seconds, and then you and Lucas can come back here so we can grab the bags and get out.” 

Mike nods and turns back to Lucas. “Hey Flam—”

Before those words even fully leave Mike's mouth, Lucas flies back like a puppet being yanked on a string. His back hits the solid marble wall of the bank with a sickening thud, his body going limp on impact.

“WHAT THE FUC—” Mike’s words die in his throat as an invisible force wraps around his body and slowly lifts him off the ground. Mike has never felt this strong of a force, not even from Will. His eyes dart around the bank searching for the culprit. Finally, he lands on the person responsible for his current predicament. Standing by the back, near the manager’s office, is a lone figure with their right arm raised in front of their body, just like how Will focuses his powers. They’re too far away for Mike to make out any details other than basic clothing: a pair of beat-up sneakers, loose jeans, and a black hoodie with the number 11 printed on the front. The figure begins to walk forward while still keeping their right arm raised, leaving Mike completely and utterly immobilized. Eventually, the figure gets close enough for Mike to see them fully. Their face is hidden beneath a blue handkerchief tied around their mouth and nose, and their eyes hidden by the shadow of their pulled up hood.

Mike struggles to breathe as the force continues to crush every square inch of his body. With a struggle, he finally manages to croak out, “Star.”

“WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?!” the person bellows, their voice distorted with rage.

Mike can only choke out a gasping noise.

“TELL ME!” The person begins to walk closer to Mike. They lift their hand higher, raising Mike further above the floor until his feet are dangling six feet off the ground.

Mike hovers in space as the figure glances toward Lucas’ unconscious body. The door leading to the vault area flies open with a bang, and Mike flicks his eyes toward it. Dustin and Will emerge and, in an instant, Will’s hand flies up in front of him.

_Oh shit. Here comes the pain._

Several things happen at once. The orderly chaos of the bank is thrown into full-blown anarchy. First, the invisible force wrapped around Mike releases, dropping him to his feet, where he hits the ground with a thud. Second, the figure—the one that was holding Mike hostage with Gifts outside of his knowledge—goes flying through the air like they’ve been shot out of a cannon and smashes through one of the bank’s front windows with a sickening crash. Third, the bank alarm system goes off adding a shrill soundtrack as the civilians spring up to their feet and run out of the bank screaming.

“GET THE FUCK OVER HERE,” Dustin screams above the noise, waving his hand to beckon Mike through the escaping masses. Mike climbs to his feet, shaking his head and body to reorient himself back on the ground. As the alarm pounds around him, he looks for Lucas’ slumped body and rushes over to him.

“Oh shit, oh shit,” Mike mutters. He scoops up Lucas' unconscious form and places Lucas over his shoulder, allowing him to safely carry Lucas to join Will and Dustin in the vault area.

“WHO THE FUCK WAS THAT?” Will shouts as the three still-standing men start to grab bags from in front of the vault.

“I DON’T FUCKING KNOW!” Mike yells back. With the alarm blaring and Mike’s throat still raw, he has to struggle to be heard.

“SHUT THE FUCK UP,” Dustin interrupts as Will and Mike grab more bags and begin heading to van. “Let’s just get Lucas in the van, get the loot, and get the FUCK out of here before the cops show up.” 

Once outside, as they throw their bags into the back of the van, Mike remembers the death threat he got yesterday about anything going wrong. “What about Brenner?”

Dustin snaps his head toward Mike and spits out, “I will fucking deal with Brenner.” After putting the last bag into the van, he tosses a set of car keys to Will. “Now let's get the fuck out of here.”

Mike lays Lucas down in the back seat alongside Dustin. Once the door is slammed shut, Mike hops into the front seat and nervously glances at Will who is currently white-knuckling the steering wheel. 

“Step on it, Will,” Dustin begs as the tires squeal under them.

As the van begins to pull away from the bank, Mike can only sit in stunned silence.

_What just happened._

  


* * *

  


Pain shoots through El's left knee as she limps up the stairs to her apartment. Thank God Kali was able to patch her up. After she regained consciousness, lying on the sidewalk and covered in broken glass—with her ears ringing, powers drained, and the alarm in the bank pounding—she managed to disappear into the escaping crowds and eventually found her way to Kali’s hideout. From there, the gang patched her up to the best of their abilities and sent her on her way with a new set of clothes.

Thanks to more than enough walking, El makes it back to her apartment. As she climbs higher, her thoughts go from her damaged body to the star-faced telekinetic. 

_Star._ The memory of his mask flashes though her head. _That must be the unregistered telekinetic Hop was talking about,_ she thinks, wincing as another wave of pain racks her body. _He threw me through a three inch thick bulletproof window like I was nothing._

_Without my Gifts, I would be dead._

El reaches her apartment and barely has time to unlock the door before—

“HOLY FUCKING SHIT EL, DID YOU FUCKING SEE IT?!” Max screams. She waves her arms as the door swings open, startling El backwards just enough to cause her to land on her butt. _Ouch._ Max keeps yelling gibberish in front of the TV while El shakes her body out to redistribute the pain before attempting to walk normally into the room.

“What—” El starts to ask, before Max interrupts her.

“Look at that!” Max points at the news channel playing on the TV. “The fucking Black Tie Crew struck again!”

“Yeah,” El says. She tries not to visibly wince, the memories of the masks still vivid in her mind. “I heard about that.”

“Did you hear about the other thing?” Max asks. She turns to face El with widening eyes.

“What other thing?” El asks, treading cautiously.

_Is it me?_

“There's a superhero in Chicago now!” Max expels in awe.

_It is me?_

“A what?” El spits out.

“Yeah! Some random fucking person in the middle of the robbery, wearing a hoodie and bandana, stopped them with powers!”

“Oh...” El tries hard to keep the raging inferno of her mind from showing.

_THIS IS NOT GOOD._

“It’s like Superman himself landed in the city!” Max beams, digging for her phone. “It’s all over Twitter and shit.” She opens up Twitter and shows El the trending page.

_#ELEVEN! WHAT?_

“Oh, okay,” El says. Even though she knows it would be best to put up a façade in front of Max, she can’t help that the pain in her body and mind is dominating her thought process.

Of course, Max notices. “Is everything alright?”

“I'm going to be honest with you.” El winces, hoping to sell the next lie to her ever-skeptical roommate. “I went to the gym for the first time in a while and now my entire body hurts. I just want to go lie down.”

“Oh!” Max starts to giggle, only to turn serious when El cringes. “Do you need anything? Like ice or Gatorade or something?” She gently places her arm around El’s shoulders as they walk to El’s bedroom.

“No.” El reaches up to rub her aching shoulder. “Just tell me more about the superhero after I take a nap.”

“Get well soon!” Max resumes her position sitting in front of the TV, finally allowing El to limp into her room and slam the door behind her.

 _OH NO._

_OH GOD._

_OH NO._

_What did I think was going to happen?_

_Of course people saw me._

_Good thing my hoodie isn't that recognizable._

_Oh no._

_I'm screwed._  


* * *

  
“Is he okay?” Dustin asks, crossing the threshold to join Mike in Mike’s apartment.

“Yeah,” Mike says. Lucas is still sleeping on the couch. “He’s doing pretty okay. That hit against the wall rattled him pretty hard.” 

“Like Max—” Dustin tries to joke, but any attempt at a smile slides off his face.

“What about...?” Mike begins, before looking at Dustin and seeing the tired and lost look on his face. Mike insteads finishes his sentence with a grim nod. The past couple hours have been exhausting and mentally draining for both of them.

“Just pull up a chair, Dustin,” Mike says instead. “I'll get us some beers.”

Dustin nods and goes into the kitchen to grab one of the chairs from the kitchen table. He carries it into the living room and sets it beside the couch while Mike grabs two bottles of beer from the fridge. Once back in the living room, Mike sits down on the arm of the couch and pops them open.

The two of them sit in silence for a few minutes, sipping their beers and listening to the sound of Lucas's steady breathing, before Mike breaks the silence. “Let's start with the obvious question. How is Brenner doing?”

“Not happy.” Dustin gimaces. “I managed to give him a massive cut to shut him up and keep our heads for now.”

“How much of a cut?”

Dustin exhales wearily and takes a big swig of his beer before meeting Mike’s eyes. “I gave Brenner ten miillon.”

Mike’s eyes widen with shock. That's a fifty percent cut!”

“Don't worry, there's more than enough for the rest of us.” Dustin tries to smirk but it just looks jaded. “Anyway, back to Brenner. He’s leaving us alone for a little bit.”

“What do you mean?” 

“Well, ever since this new fucking person showed up, Brenner’s going to be busy doing damage control.”

“Do we know anything about them?” Mike asks, an eyebrow cocked. “We’re connected to most of the Gifted in the city.”

Dustin shrugs. “No idea. The media’s been calling them ‘11’ after their hoodie design.” 

Mike nods. He remembers the yellow “11” printed across their hoodie. “What does that mean for us?”

“It means we’re going to take a month off from banks,” Dustin states, leaving no room for objection. “That being said, I’m going to go talk to Harrington. He’s been trying to get us to do some other jobs.”

“Other jobs?”

“Like some real criminal underground shit that I've been avoiding.” Dustin sighs and takes a swig of his beer. “But since we're going to need cash flow and something to do, I might hit him up on that—”

“Hey, guys!” Lucas suddenly says, startling the other two men.

“Holy fuck Lucas, you scared me,” Dustin breathes out as the shock passes through him. “How's the body feeling?”

“Pretty okay.” Lucas sits up on the couch and hastily tosses off the blanket Mike threw over him earlier. “If it wasn't for the Gifts, I'd probably be dead.” 

“Good.” Dustin smiles, his tired expression slipping away. “Any broken bones?”

“No, you guys got me a healer in time.”

“Okay.” Dustin sets his beer down on the coffee table and wipes his hands on his pants. “Well, I've got to get going.”

“Really?” Lucas asks.

“I trust Mike to take care of you. I’m going to talk to Will and make sure he's feeling okay.” Dustin stands up from his chair. “It's not every day you throw another one of your kind through a fucking plate glass window.”

“Give him my best,” Mike adds.

Dustin nods, picks up his beer again, and finishes it with one last drink before leaving the apartment.

“So I heard the last part of the conversation,” Lucas begins, filling the air that Dustin left behind. “Are we really not robbing for another month?” 

“Yeah.” Mike sips from his beer. “But Dustin’s trying to find us other things to do in the meantime.

“That makes sense. We should probably keep a low profile so that Brenner isn't breathing down our necks.”

“That’s a huge relief.”

“Well guess we have a month off.” A grin spreads across Lucas’s face.

“Why are you smiling?” Mike chuckles. “What does that mean?”

“It means I get to take Max out for a bunch of dates,” Lucas says, still smiling. “And you, Mr. Hopeless Romantic, get to take El out too.”

At the mention of his girlfriend, all thoughts of the botched bank robbery go flying out of Mike's head, and her gorgeous eyes and the beautiful lines of her face captivate his attention. He almost doesn't care that he’s taking a month off. All that means to Mike is that he gets to spend more time with her, the girl of his dreams.  


* * *

  
“WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?” Hopper bellows the second the apartment door clicks shut. His voice is so loud El is thankful Max went to go visit Lucas for the night (it was something about Lucas getting injured).

“I wasn't thinking about anything other than saving this city!” El yells, standing her ground against her irate father.

“I don't care about that right now!” Hopper’s tone drops, but his voice is still harsh. “My daughter almost got killed by goddamn criminals.” 

“Dad, I understand why you’re worried,” El says, “but you need to understand that I have these Gifts, and how I choose to use them is none of your business.”

“Okay,” Hopper sighs. “Okay, fine. You got me there. But you getting thrown through a plate glass window in the middle of the day shouldn’t even be an option." Hopper pauses to run his hand over his face and gather his thoughts before he continues with a calmer tone of voice. “Okay, listen. I knew this day was going to come, so I made a plan. If you're going to be a vigilante, if you're going to go out there as 11 or whatever the media is calling you, you're going to do it right. Okay?” 

El’s brow furrows with confusion. “Okay.”

Hopper produces a small notepad from his pocket and quickly scribbles on it. “Here.” He tears the page off and hands it to El.

“Whose number is this?” El scans the page, deciphering her dad’s messy handwriting. 

“An acquaintance of mine.”

“Are they a cop?”

“Not in any way, shape, or form.” Hopper almost laughs before continuing. “They've had a couple interactions with CPD, but listen. They’ll help you get your Gifts under control and get you in contact with some of the darker parts of the Gifted underground.” 

El nods, struggling to comprehend that her dad, the police chief, is helping a superhero. 

“If you really want to go after the Black Tie Crew, do it,” Hopper says, with a conviction that gives El chills. “Just don't be stupid and get yourself killed.”

“When and how can I call them?” El asks.

“Use this tomorrow.” Hopper hands El a shady looking flip phone. “It's getting kind of late and I don't think they would appreciate getting called at midnight.”

El examines the phone, turning it over in her palm. “Is this a burner phone?”

“Kinda,” Hopper says. “It's untraceable so that the DGA and CPD won't be able to track you.” 

As plans for tomorrow begin to form in her head, El can’t help the smile that breaks across her face. “Thanks, Dad.”

“No problem.” Hopper grins with pride. “I've been covering for you nonstop today. No one knows about 11’s real identity, they just think it's some random concerned civilian that managed to pop up at the right time.”

“I can’t believe 11 is the name the news went with.'' El glances toward her hoodie lying on her couch. She was in the process of sewing up the cuts from her trip through the window when Hop knocked. 

“Me neither.” Hopper smiles before turning serious. “So if you're going to continue doing this whole vigilante thing, which I don’t really approve of but there's no way in hell I'm going to be able to stop you, you’re going to do it the best you can. Does that sound good?”

El beams. “That sounds great.

“Now go get ‘em, kid.” Hopper ruffles El’s hair and leaves the apartment.

El walks over to her hoodie and picks it up, taking in the costume that is now going to become synonymous with her superhero identity. She managed to convince Kali to give her back the blue handkerchief that Mike gave her, and the idea of having it over her mouth and nose as she takes down the Black Tie Crew fills her with determination. She's not just taking down the Black Tie Crew for herself; she's taking it down for her father, for her friends, for everyone in the city, and most importantly, for Mike. She quickly throws on the hoodie and ties the handkerchief around her mouth, then takes a long look at herself in the mirror. 

_Black Tie Crew. Meet 11. Your doom._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter deals with the fallout from this and maybe the appearance of a certain ice cream scooping duo.


	8. Aftermath

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone! Sorry for taking so long to update this story. Don't worry, I haven't completely Abandoned it as I am currently working on chapters 8, 9, and 10 as this is being published. 
> 
> Expect a new chapter once the new year hits.

**_Saturday July 20th_ **

El stares at the flip phone in her hand. She's been battling herself for the last 20 minutes on whether or not she should call the mysterious secret contact her dad told her about. She has attempted to get more information on whoever this mysterious person is, but the answers Hop gave are pretty limited. The only thing she's managed to gather is that they're not a cop, they’re heavily involved in the criminal underground, and they're Gifted. 

_Maybe I should run this idea by Kali. She could probably help out on this but she has made it very clear that she doesn't want to get involved with superhero business unless it's just training me. I should just call the number._

“Hey Max,” El calls out to her distracted roommate.

“Yeah?” Max asks, looking up from her laptop.

“I'm going to go make a phone call outside.” El’s mouth feels suddenly dry. “Okay?”

_Why am I nervous? I’m just making a phone call._

“Yeah,” Max dismisses, eyes shifting back to the screen in front of her. “Whatever.” She starts typing again.

El runs out of her apartment and into the stairwell, away from prying eyes and ears. She pulls out the scrap of notebook paper and stares at the number one last time.

_Here goes nothing._

She types in the number and places the phone to her ear, hearing it ring.

“Eleven,” a voice answers, distorted by a vocal filter. “I was wondering when you would call.”

“You know who I am?” El asks in shock.

“Of course.” Despite the heavy processing, El can almost hear the smile in the voice. “Chief Hopper is a good errand boy sometimes.”

“Who are you?” El spits out, trying to keep her voice from wavering with both fear and anger.

“Meet me at the Southside Pier 22 at 9 to find out. Bring your costume.” 

“What?” El asks before the line goes dead with a click. 

El buries her face in her hands and groans. 

_Being a superhero is annoying sometimes._

She walks out of the stairwell and is immediately greeted by the sight of her boyfriend standing in front of her apartment with one hand poised to knock and the other hand holding a bouquet of flowers.

“Mike!” El gasps, but with a smile across her lips. “What are you doing here?”

“What? You don't want to see me?” Mike mirrors El’s smile before his face turns confused. “What were you doing in the stairwell?”

“I… I had to make a phone call,” El responds. “And Max is busy with some skateshop stuff, so I didn't want to bother her.”

“Okay,” Mike says before raising up the bouquet of flowers. It’s a small collection of pink and red tulips. “I just wanted to stop by real quick. I was on my way to go see Dustin, but I figured I might as well give you some flowers.”

Suddenly, El sprints down the hallway and nearly tackles Mike in a smothering embrace. “I didn't think I was going to be able to see you today,” she says, her voice muffled against Mike’s chest.

“Well me neither.” Mike plants a quick peck on her cheek, followed by another one on her lips. “How's everything going?“

“I’m doing okay.” El sighs. “Right now I’m just focused on my own stuff...” El trails off, before animatedly adding, “How are your books coming along?”

“Great!” Mike beams. “I'm on the third act now, so it’s either time to wrap up everything in this nice, tight little bow, or just leave stuff open for a sequel.” 

“The classic debate of all writing,” El jokes. 

Mike laughs. “What do you know about writing?” he jokes back.

“Hey.” El boops Mike on the nose. “I wrote plenty of fanfiction when I was 14.” 

“I did the same.” Mike bashfully looks away.

“Really?”

“How do you think I became a writer?” Mike chuckles. “Five words: Lord of the Rings fanfiction.” 

El’s eyes widen. “Oh no.”

“Yep.” Mike nods shamefully.

El thinks for a second before she lights up with an idea. “One of these days, we have to get drunk and read that together.” 

“That's actually not a bad date idea.” Mike thinks for a moment. before meeting El’s eyes. “As long as you bring yours too.”

“I plan on it.” El giggles. 

“Well, I have to go meet Dustin now. See you soon, El.” With one final kiss and the hand off of the bouquet of flowers, Mike disappears down the hall.

El stands in front of her apartment door deeply breathing, still reeling from the whiplash of her private and romantic life colliding.

_God this is going to be really hard. I have to keep 11 a secret from everyone._

With one final deep breath, El walks back into her apartment, knowing Max is going to give her shit about the flowers.

“Nice flowers, dickhead,” Max says, glancing up towards El. “Mike brought them for you?”

“Yeah.” El blushes and looks down at the flowers in her hand. 

“I was wondering who was talking outside.” Max smiles. “He texted me something about surprising you and honestly I didn't think that boy had it in him.”

“What makes you think that?” El asks, confused as Mike has been very sweet with her so far. 

“Before I set you two up, Mike didn't have a romantic bone in his body,” Max jokes. “Except in his books.”

“Well maybe I bring out the best in him.” El smiles, her heart fluttering.

“Whatever,'' Max says. El starts to head to her bedroom, when suddenly Max interjects, “What was your phone call about?”

“I… uh… I just had to finalize some plans with some school people.” El ends her sentence with a smile, hoping to sell the clear lie to Max. 

“Oh, okay,” Max says. “By the way, we should catch a movie later today.”

“Sure! What time?” 

“I was thinking like 8:30, we can go get drinks beforehand.” 

“Sur-” El begins, before remembering her shady pier meeting. “Actually I can’t. I have to go somewhere at 9.”

“Something with Mike?”

El hesItates before nodding.

“A date or a sex thing? Like what are we talking about?”

“None of your business,” El snaps.

Max’s face turns concerned. “Is everything okay?” 

“I'm fine,” El responds a little softer, hoping not to alert Max to her secret meeting. “Why do you ask?” 

“You just seem a little off and kind of distant ever since the whole bank robbery thing. Are you okay?”

“I’m okay.” El breathes out. “It's just stuff with Mike.”

“I was starting to think you’re 11.” Max smirks as she returns to her work on her laptop. 

“WHAT?!” El spits out before clasping her hand over her mouth.

“I'm joking, I'm joking.” Max laughs. “Go have fun with your sex thing with Mike. I'll see if Lucas is up for the movie.” 

“Okay.” El quickly disappears into her room and locks the door behind her.

_God. This double identity thing is going to suck._  


* * *

  
“Hey Dustin,” Mike says as he steps into the passenger seat of Dustin's car, receiving a nod from the curly haired man behind the wheel. “So what exactly does Steve want us to do?”

“No idea.” Dustin responds as he pulls the car away from the curb. “He just told me to meet him at the store.”

“Okay. So what do you think he wants us to do?”

“He mentioned something about underground shipping last time I saw him, so he might just have us help him with his business or whatever,” Dusitn rambles. “Like, maybe he wants us to help out with transporting money or something dumb like that.”

“Probably.” Mike smiles. “Anyway, I could use some ice cream right about now.”

“I mean, same.” Dustin smirks. “And considering Steve does give us a discount, we might as well pick something up. You should probably pick up something for El.”

Mike chuckles. “If they have a waffle flavor, she'll fucking love it.”

“Maybe as a date you two should go to Scoops. I took Suzie once.”

“Yes, because that’s a great idea,” Mike deapans. “Take the daughter of the police chief to a money laundering ice cream store.” 

”Hey, I never said my ideas were great.” Dustin laughs. “But they are pretty damn good.”

“Maybe in August.” Mike shrugs. “I already promised Max that one of our dates is going to be at her skate shop.” 

Dustin pulls his car into a parking space and turns it off. “That sounds fun,” he says. “Now let's go make some deals.” 

Scoops Ahoy is widely considered to be one of Chicago's best ice cream parlors. However, its nautical theme and bright interior hide a much darker side. It starts with the terrifying tandem of owners: Steve Harrington and Robin Buckley. Steve is a prominent figure in the underground of Chicago. He’s first and foremost a legitimate businessman, as he operates his ice cream store as a business before a front. However, he is more than willing to help launder money and even finance some of the grittier deals that go on in the underground. And he has the sheer intensity to back it up. Mike has heard stories of him taking out three armed robbers with nothing but a nail studded baseball bat. After that, he hired Robin whose passive exterior conceals a sinister inside. She’s Steve's personal enforcer and bodyguard. If anyone or anything fucks him over, she's there with a .45 tucked in the back of her pants.

The little bell rings above the door as the two men enter the parlor. 

“Welcome to Scoops Ahoy.” Robin greets them from behind the counter with the same bored look on her face that Mike remembers from the time she executed a rival hitman on the front steps of Scoops.

“Is he here?” Dustin asks excitedly.

“Is who here?” Robin asks back, a slight grin forming as she and Dustin go through their standard ritual.

“HENDERSON!” 

Suddenly, the door to the back of the store swings open, revealing Steve Harrington in all his glory, dressed in a tacky nautical-themed uniform with a giant grin plastered across his face. “Henderson!”

“Steve!” Dustin laughs, clapping his hand against Steve’s outstretched hand. “I brought company!”

“Mike!” Steve turns to him. “How's it going?”

“Pretty good!” Mike smiles back.

“Great,” Steve says, before pointing at the two of them. “We need to talk. Robin, have Stacy cover you for a little bit.”

“Stacy! Cover me.” Robin calls out before a black haired girl emerges from the other side of the store and takes Robin’s place behind the counter. Mike and Dustin follow Robin and Steve through the back hallway and into Steve's office.

“Guys, take a seat.” Steve gestures to the two chairs sitting opposite an over-the-top desk that Steve got to make himself feel more important. Steve takes a seat behind it and Robin stands by the door. Steve begins “So, I heard about what happened with you and I'm sorry, I don't have any info for you guys.”

“No problem,” Dustin says plainly. “They must be new.” 

“Okay.” Steve smiles. “With that out of the way, we can actually start talking about some business. There's a girl I've been seeing who’s in need of some muscle, and I figured why not have you guys do it. The risk is low and the pay is high.”

“Do we know what she needs muscle for exactly?' Dustin asks. “You know we don’t kill.” 

“I know,” Steve says. “She just needs help with a gun running deal”

“Can you be more specific?” Dustin asks.

“I can't give you all the information. You would have to go to her.” Steve pauses. “Here. Let me… let me just write some stuff down.” Steve reaches into the desk and pulls out a notepad. He clicks a pen, quickly jots down a few sentences, and hands the pad to Dustin.

“What's this last word?” Dustin asks, pointing to the word underneath the address on the paper.

“That's the password you have to say.” Noting Mike’s confused face, Steve continues. “You just knock on the door, there should be a little slot that slides open, you just say the password and you should be let in.”

Mike and Dustin nod with slight smiles.

“Don't let the appearances fool you,'' Steve adds. “She may look intimidating, but she's softer than a marshmallow.”

“Really?” Dustin, says half excited and half confused.

Steve and Robin both hold for a brief moment before bursting out in uproaring laughter. “FUCK NO,” Steve wheezes as Robin wipes away a tear. Steve gathers his breath before contining, “She’ll kill you if you fucking look at her the wrong way.” 

“YOU SON OF A BITCH!” Dustin starts swearing at Steve while Mike faceplams. Once Dustin is finished tearing into Steve, he starts to stand up, and Mike does the same.

“We should get going soon, Steve,” Dustin says. “Catch you later.”

“Goodbye gentleman.” Steve waves. “By the way, get some ice cream on the way out. Robin, be sure to ring them up with the discount.” 

“Will do.” Robin nods and opens the door, leading Mike and Dustin out of the office and back into the main area of the store “So what will be, boys?” she asks, taking her place behind the counter with a small smile across her lips.

“I hate to sound like an asshole,” Mike says “But what would you recommend?” 

“Steve just got a new shipment of red velvet, so that's always pretty good. And Dustin, I know you have a thing for the chocolate pudding flavor.”

“Isn't it just regular chocolate ice cream?” Mike cocks an eyebrow.

“Shut up, it's different,” Dustin says. “It has little globs of the pudding in the cream”

“How does that even work?”

“I have no idea,” Robin says, breaking up the impending argument.

“Can I get two scoops of birthday cake in a waffle cone,” Mike asks, “and two scoops of chocolate marshmallow in a to-go cup?”

“And can I get a scoop of the chocolate pudding in a cup?” Dustin adds.

“Sure thing.” Robin says as she makes short work of their orders and hands them the ice cream. The two men start reaching for their wallets before Robin interrupts them. “I know Steve said to give you a discount but fuck it, it's on the house today.”

“Thanks Robin,” Dustin says with a toothy grin.

Mike smiles. “Yeah, thank you.”

“Goodbye, boys.” Robin waves as the two of them leave.

They take a seat at one of the many tables outside of Scoops, taking in the midday summer air. 

“So gun-running?” Dustin breaks the silence in between licks.

“Holy shit,” Mike expels in awe as he turns to Dustin. “Do you even know anything about this girl?”

“Nope,” Dustin says. “All I know is that the address is for one of the warehouses near the pier.”

“When are you going to meet her?”

“Steve wrote that we should go in a couple days. I can take Will or Lucas if you don’t want to go.” 

“I'll go with you. I might as well.” Mike smiles with uncertainty. “Just to see this out to the end.”

_I just graduated from bank robber to gunrunner._  


* * *

  
“When are they going to show up?” El mutters to herself as she checks her watch. “They were supposed to be here 10 minutes ago.” She glances around her immediate surroundings, the vacant pier and warehouses filling her with panic. 

_Maybe they're just going to kill me._

El is dressed in what she now calls her superhero costume: a pair of worn Converse, flexible black joggers, and her 11 hoodie, with various patches covering the cuts from its trip through the window. Her hood is up and she has tied the same blue handkerchief Mike gave her around her mouth. Every time she breathes in, she swears she can still smell him.

“Well, well, well. If it isn't little 11.” A familiar voice taunts from behind her and instantly sends shivers up El’s spine. She turns around, hands raised, powers ready, and faces—

“KALI?!” 

“Who else would it be?” Kali smirks.

“Wait you… you're my dad's contact?”

“Kind of,” Kali explains. “Why do you think you've been able to come for me for the past eight months?”

“Wait!” El exclaims, still reeling. “My dad knew? How?” 

“The first time I got arrested after you found me and we started training, I mentioned off hand that I knew his daughter was Gifted. So he cut me a deal and so far I've been telling him about your progress. After the whole bank incident, he called me up and let me know that he wanted me to become your, not really sidekick, but assistant.”

El’s brow furrows. “What do you mean?”

“Let me show you. Come into the warehouse with me.” Kali gestures, pointing to the warehouse. 

“What's in there?”

“You'll see.” Kali smirks as she opens the door and enters, allowing El to follow her in.

The warehouse is much smaller than the other one El normally meets Kali in. It is, however, filled with various firearms, weapons, armor, and munitions.

“Oh. My. God.” El gasps. “You have an entire armory in here.”

“Yeah.” Kali nods. “I mean, I never really have to use it. When you just run guns and drugs in the Gifted community, no one really fucks with you—”

“I'm not using a gun,” El interrupts.

“I know you're not,” Kali says, “but you might as well protect yourself out there.”

“What do you mean?”

“I want to be honest with you. Your workout clothes aren't exactly going to be your best bet when you go against the Black Tie Crew and other criminals.”

“Others?” El squeaks.

“I'll get to that in a little bit. But first, I'm going to need your measurements.”

“Why?”

“For your revealing and way too tight spandex suit,” Kali mocks.

“What?!”

“No, you dumbass.” Kali laughs. “It’s for your padding.” 

“You're giving me a bodysuit?”

“Sort of.”

“I could just go into passive. That allows me to take a little more damage.”

“But when you're going against whatever the telekinitic’s name is—” Kali snaps her fingers trying to remember the name El told her when the gang patched El up. 

“Star,” El supplies.

“Thank you,” Kali says before continuing. “When you're going against him, I doubt passive mode is going to be that effective when he chucks you through a brick wall this time.” 

Now convinced, El tells Kali her measurements and Kali runs off to a massive closet full of tactical gear.

“I'm not going to give you, like, a full-on bodysuit, but here.“ Kali hands El a black duffel bag.

“What's in here?” El asks, peering inside the bag.

“Forearm and shin guards plus knee and elbow pads. All made from protective materials like Kevlar.” 

“What about a vest?” 

“Let me grab that.” Kali runs over to a collection of vests mounted on the wall and glances them over before picking one up and handing it to El. 

El takes it. It's much lighter than her dad's old bulletproof vest from the NYPD. “Wow, this is way lighter than I was expecting.”

“Yeah, it's very light.” Kali smiles. “Despite that, it will protect you. However, if someone shoots you, it _is_ going to hurt like a bitch, but it won’t penetrate the vest. It will also protect you from stabbings.”

El examines the items in her hands. “Thanks.”

“Now go try them on.” Kali points to a curtained off area of the warehouse. 

El goes behind the curtain and finds herself in a small dressing room with a single bench and a full-length mirror. She takes off her hoodie and joggers so she can start putting on the protective pads. Finally, after she places the last one on, she manages to put back on her hoodie and joggers. Luckily, both are baggy enough that she can wear all the protective armor underneath them.

“Does everything fit?” Kali’s voice comes from the other side of the curtain. 

El steps back outside, this time with her face uncovered as she holds the handkerchief in her hand.

“You look exactly the fucking same,” Kali deadpans.

“Yeah, but...” El start hitting her forearms with her fists. “I feel a lot more sturdy.” 

“Do you want to wrap your fists?” 

“Yeah.” El smiles like a kid who just got a new toy, still examining her pads.

Kali tosses El two rolls of black fabric. “Here you go.”

El wraps up her fists like Hop taught her to and ties the handkerchief around her face. 

“Now there is one more thing.” Kali reaches into a satchel down at her feet and pulls out a small device that looks like a walkie-talkie.

El eyes the device. “Is that a walkie-talkie?” 

“It's a police scanner.”

“Why are you giving me a police scanner?”

“So the Black Tie Crew doesn't know you're only after them.”

“Huh?”

“If the new superhero only appears at Black Tie crime scenes, they are going to know that someone's after them, and they're going to start tightening up security and paying more attention. If the superhero is just going around saving kittens in trees and stopping muggings, then the Crew might let their guard down.”

“Oh. That’s a very good idea.” 

“Plus it helps with your public image, just in case.”

El nods in understanding before her face scrunches up in confusion. “Why do you have a police scanner?” 

“Why do you fucking think?” Kali deadpans. “Anyway, I might have something for you about Black Tie crew.”

El perks up. “What is it?”

“This isn't 100%, but some people I know talk to the Black Tie Crew, and I'm trying to get them to help me out with a deal.”

“What kind of deal?”

“Just as muscle for an arms deal,” Kali says, “but the second I'm done with my business you can feel free take them out.”

“Wait.” El holds her hands up. “Let me get this straight. You’re hiring the Black Tie Crew for an arms deal and then after you're done, you're just going to let me capture them?”

“Yeah,” Kali says nonchalantly.

“Do you know when and where?” El asks eagerly.

“Not yet. I’m meeting them in a couple days. After that, do you still have that burner phone your dad gave you?” 

“I do.” The burner phone is currently tucked into El’s pillowcase.

“I'll call you and let you know the details.”

El nods as she stares at herself in the mirror, absorbing everything that has happened.

“So I guess this is it now.” Kali smirks while patting El on the back. “You're a fucking superhero.” 

_I am._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading so much! If you enjoyed this, please leave a kudos or a comment, I always appreciate them. 
> 
> Also, you can find me on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/KaliPrasad008)


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